‘Truth’ is the theme of our current Autumn 2021 issue … and our resident astrologer, Rachelle Hicks, had some powerful thoughts to share on what truth can look like for many of us. Read on below!
Astrologer
Positive Nights Presents: A Journey Through Astrology With Pam Gregory
We are thrilled to share the details of our next Positive Nights Zoom event: an evening with renowned astrologer Pam Gregory! This will take place on Thursday August 6th, from 7.30 to 9.30 p.m. Irish Summer Time. Click here to book your tickets.
Steffan Vanel is an internationally renowned astrologer, tarot card reader and author of ‘The Astrological Karma of the USA’. He works with a unique synthesis of astrology, tarot, Kabbalah, and psychology. He is also a primary exponent of information received from the Ascended Master Hilarion. During our evening with Steffan, he will:
• Give us a thoughtful forward view of the major Astrological events approaching in 2020.
• Share an explanation as to why time is actually moving much faster in these times than in previous eras.
• Give an inside explanation of the ‘Space Brothers,’ and the unique experiment in evolution taking place on this small blue and green globe spinning in the universe.
• He will also be happy to take questions from the audience, during the second half of the evening.
Steffan is known to share a joke or two during his presentations, so things don’t get too heavy! Learn more about him at his website: spiritualcompany.com
This event will take place on Thursday November 21st from 7.30 to 9.30 p.m. in Bewley’s Café, 78/79 Grafton Street, Dublin 2. Click here to book your tickets.
By Andrew Smith
Why this winter solstice and December 25th are so special
Highlights of the winter of 2012-13 cosmic activity
December 13th – Cold Moon New Moon at 21 Sagittarius
December 21st – January 5th– Age of Humani; the rebirth of Light (Northern Hemisphere); Finger of God Yod between Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto
December 27th – Pouring Cement as Saturn sextiles Pluto
January 11th – Quite Moon New Moon at 21 Capricorn
February 10th – Moon of Ice New Moon at 21 Aquarius
February 23rd – March 17th– Move towards wholeness as Mercury Retrogrades in Pisces
Your life is embedded within a larger vibratory field of intelligence that is ever changing and perpetually becoming conscious. As the energies within this field change, reflected in the continual planetary dialogue, you change too. Normally, the shifts that take place within creation are subtle. However, over the past two years, that has not been true. The cosmic noise has been cranked up so that everyone gets it. That does not mean everyone will understand or accept the shifts, but no-one can ignore them.
Here are just some of the ways that the shift has been experienced since 2010 (and intensified since June 21st 2012) – fluctuating physical and subtle energy levels; augmented sensitivity and heightened emotions; intense dreaming and increased sleep disruption; changes in digestive sensitivity; lack of concentration or decisiveness; relationship issues; intolerance of toxicity (emotional and physical); increased fear and anxiety; changes in global attitude towards power and control; amplified disturbances in weather, economic and social patterns; the search for true community; spontaneous consciousness expansion; increased awakening; insight; and heightened awareness. On a daily human level, this process is set to calm down during the first three months of 2013, but will remain an on-going background process until 2015.
In sync with the growth process of the Earth, we have been undergoing a complete transmutation through a clearing and quickening of the physical, mental, emotional and etheric bodies. In synchrony with the planetary dance, your consciousness has subsequently evolved more deliberately, raising your body’s vibration and kindling a quickening process that can transmute the shadows of your past, including experiences, judgements, thought forms, and old patterns that have held you back. Whether you are experiencing this shift consciously or unconsciously, the vibrational change is harmonising your life force to accommodate the renewed flow of light, which will rebirth on the winter solstice.
Merriment and mercantilism have also long been associated with the celebrations of the winter solstice, but what is really being celebrated over the Christmas period is the rebirth of the light within each of us, which takes place annually on December 21st.
For astrologers, the Sun personifies the light of our soul, and the annual journey that the Sun makes along the path of the twelve zodiacal signs is seen as a template for the various stages of our spiritual development. In the Northern hemisphere, the Sun not only is at its lowest height over the horizon just before Christmas, it actually does not appear to move. It is resting; its heat has dwindled – it has no energy, vitality or vibrancy. It has symbolically died.
Some historians have suggested that the celebrations of December 25th were to do with the miscalculation of the solstice by the Romans. However, the real reason why the Saturnalia festivities took place on this day was that the 25th coincides with the first day that the Sun appears to awaken from its slumber and renews its journey back to the highest point in the heavens at mid- summer. In other words, as the Sun appears to start moving again, the light, the Christ within, is renewed.
The Winter Solstice of 2012 is especially powerful, simply due to the fact that numerous additional harmonic sequences reboot at 11:11am on December 21st. These cosmic rhythms are codified within the Mayan Calendar, which is actually not one calendar, but many, tracking several time periods with a twenty six thousand year epoch in an ever decreasing spiral manner. The calendar operates as an intricately woven keeper of planetary movements, periods of consciousness, human emergence and time. The resetting of these sequences heralds the dawn of the next stage of human emergence.
The position of Jupiter in the solar system at this moment of awakening holds the key to understanding the inherent meaning of the solstice. Simply put, it is an expansion of consciousness. Life will continue but within a matrix that has a thinner veil between this realm and the myriad spirit realms. Within this reality’s illusion of time, more and more people are becoming conscious of the deception of both the ego and matter.
Immediately after this rebirthing, from December 27th for nine months, the conditions are ripe to lay a psychic foundation that will form the bedrock of your consciousness for the coming couple of years. If you have been tuning into the cosmic cycle, you will have spent 2012 questioning, searching, and re-envisioning. Those aspirations can find conscious form now. I would ask you to make a list of the six main areas of your life wherein you are defined by routine – professionally, socially, romantically, nutritionally, athletically and spiritually. I want you to list off all the things that you do on a regular basis in each of those areas of your life. Once you have completed each category, I want you to ask yourself one simple question – does that routine stem from your conscious choice, or is it a consequence of something deeper than yourself (duty, obligation, fear, uncertainty, insecurity, karma, etc.)? I want you to put a ‘tick’ beside those routines that you have consciously chosen and a question mark beside those other patterns. Once completed, you now have a template that demonstrates how much of your life is really yours and how much of it has manifested as a result of an external stimulus.
Those areas that you have consciously chosen will be free from any pressure or desire to change in 2013. Those patterns which you have unconsciously manifested (signified by the question marks) are vulnerable to the birthing tension prevalent in the cosmic weather, as you are being challenged to free your ego from its conditioned patterns. With Saturn and Pluto harmonising within the cosmic mind, the rhythmic conditions are ripe to make changes within your daily life’s routine that will become permanent. You can now establish a lifestyle that is free from deeper complexes that have served your ego development but are no longer necessary at this stage of your emergence process. The appearance of this planetary aspect just as the energy of the Sun is at its quietest for those of us residing in the Northern Hemisphere is no coincidence.
As our planet moves towards wholeness and a renewal of its light this solstice period, each one of you has the same opportunity. It truly is a magical time, and don’t forget, you picked this time to be here, so embrace all that this time holds and establish your new conditions of being!
Read more of articles by Andrew Smith
Andrew’s private practise is in Blackrock, South Dublin. For further info on consultations, workshops or classes, or to receive his free newsletter, please email dastroc@gmail.com, text 0868823554 or join him on Facebook or LinkedIn.
Highlights of autumn 2012’s cosmic activity:
September 19th – Ongoing birthing of the New Conditions of Being as Uranus and Pluto square each other for the second time
September 16th – Singing Moon New Moon at 23 Virgo
October 5th – The Lifejacket Saturn Ingress into Scorpio
October 8th – Frustrated creativity as Jupiter sesquisquare Saturn
October 11th – Divine Architect as Saturn trine Neptune
October 15th – Harvest Moon New Moon at 22 Libra
November 6th – Journey into the Dragon’s Den
November 26th – Mercury Retrograde in Sagittarius and Scorpio
November 13th – Dark Moon Solar Eclipse and New Moon at 22 Scorpio
November 16th – Tension between old, established patterns and new ways of being as Saturn quincunx Uranus
Despite desperate attempts to cling to the “way it was” or to pine for a Golden Age lost, it is ultimately an illusion to think that everything can remain the same. The simple fact is that our lives are in perpetual motion as we seek to grow, learn, experience, love and search for a way of being that reflects our life purpose during our time on Earth. Contrary to what you have been led to believe, no day or week is ever the same. It is true that we can recognise a simple “sameness” in each unit of time, but you are not in some sort of perpetual Groundhog Day scenario, ever choosing to live out the same day, again and again. Anyone who lives from the perspective of making consciously informed choices will know that any decision contains myriad possibilities that can create multiple outcomes. Those decisions are made within time and are, therefore, unique, since the mood of time changes with the constantly fluid motion of the planets and the wider universe.
Consider the following – we are not living on a static, inanimate rock, three away from the Sun. We are actually hurtling around our life giver at a speed of 1797 kilometres a second, taking a full year to make one rotation of the Sun. The Sun itself is also not statically fixed in space, as it is, in turn, rotating around the Galactic Centre at a speed of 13035 kilometres a second. Whilst the Sun appears (from Earth) to march along the zodiacal band on an ever repeating annual basis, the background of the fixed stars incrementally shifts as we move through space. Each of the planets within our solar system is also in perpetual motion around the Sun, so the archetypal climate for each ‘sign’ actually changes on a minute to minute basis. In fact, we will not pass through the same region of the universe again for another 250 million years, which means that no day/season/year has ever the same stellar environment.
The uniqueness of the quality of time is central to astrology, as every second is imbued with a spectrum of archetypal potential waiting to be honed, conditioned and manifested by you. Since we live in an endlessly moving universe, no one moment is ever the same; therefore, everyone is truly unique. It is impossible to account, in general terms, for the multiple ways that your emergence process can manifest. With this in mind, these astrology articles are about indicating the general zeitgeist that exists each season, waiting to be infused into your very being as you seek to enlighten.
Whilst no moment will ever repeat itself identically, planetary cycles also contain a certain archetypal sameness, in the way that each year has a seasonal similarity. The value in looking to the past to understand how we, both as a collective and as individuals, responded to specific planetary cycles can give massive insights into how you resonate under certain underlying planetary stimuli, and can prepare you more consciously for the time ahead.
The stellar conditions this coming autumn (peaking on September 19th) reflect the ongoing deconstruction of Keynesian economics, social revolt (prevalent outside of Ireland), the deep questioning of the banking, political and corporate systems, and the accelerated sense of spiritual awakening. Those conditions were also extant during the swinging 60s; the rise of fascism and the start of our current global economic policies in the 30s; and the revolutions of the 1840s and 1790s. As Pluto and Uranus square off with each other, we are not only living through a very profound shift in our cultural values, we are experiencing an urgent and intense spiritual awakening as we are being challenged to bring into being new conditions of living. We are literally living through history as we draw to the close of the Mayan 4th Age and the dawning of the 5th Age.
From October 5th, we, as a collective, have the opportunity to either drown in a rising wave of strongly charged emotions or to see a cosmic lifejacket floating within arms-reach as the collective mood shifts, allowing us to witness the power of deeply charged emotions. It is the quality of our choices that always define our actions, and there is nothing more powerful than a consciously informed choice. Since we live within an endlessly changing field of planetary archetypal possibilities, awareness of the implications of the full spectrum of potentiality within a given period of time enables you to become more receptive to the opportunities for conscious growth. Whether you will seize the moment or not is entirely down to your choice!
The shadow side of the October Ingress could feel like a stagnant, decaying pool of water. Deeply rooted emotional bias and a sense of righteousness could prompt our collective psyche to justify a reason to defend ourselves and to attack those around us who threaten us. However, the more conscious integration of this Ingress is one wherein decisions are made that are inclusive of penetrating emotional maturity; of really being able to structure and direct the depths of our inner feelings and passions towards some constructive goal; and to focus on what truly feels emotionally right.
Please reflect on that implication. Can you think of any time in your life wherein you have hung onto deeply negatively charged emotions like fear, anger, greed, bitterness or resentment? Can you recall how powerful a motivating factor those feelings have been, as they have directed your consciousness towards actions of revenge, getting even, etc. I appreciate that you might not have a good head for remembering dates, so I will refrain from asking you to reflect on what was occurring back between November 29th 1982 and November 17th 1985. Instead, I’ll ask you to review a time frame wherein Saturn was in harmonic resonance with the same region of your life, between July 16th and September 1st 2005, so that you can really feel the implications, positively or otherwise, of the decisions you made then. In what way did time slow for you? What changes did you seek to practically make then? Can you see how those decisions have had a bearing on your life to date?
It is easy to see how history could repeat itself, as this exchange between two planetary patterns has not been seen since 1776-1778 (the time of the American Revolution), but as I’ve clearly highlighted above, not only are we hurtling through a different region of our universe, our consciousness is significantly different to what it was then. So, the question remains as to whether the cosmic weather will be directed in an uplifting or embattled manner on a personal and collective level as we attempt to shape these newly birthed conditions of being. Thanks for reading and enjoy swimming with your lifejacket!
To receive Andrew’s free newsletter or to book a consultation, workshop or class, contact dastroc@iol.ie or 0868823554
“Out of this World”
Natalia Gonzalez
Complementary Therapist
Have you ever felt in love with everything and everyone? Have you ever felt like nothing matters and nothing is important except that moment full of joy and happiness?
Some people call this unconditional love, or being in a state of awareness, or being enlightened. Whatever people call it, for me this feeling is out of this world! And ironically, this same feeling makes me feel so much in this world.
I have experienced this feeling on many occasions in my life, sometimes for a moment, sometimes for a week or a month. Sometimes meeting a person, doing a meditation or looking at a picture of my little 7-month-old nephew brings me to this feeling.
I wish you can all find the little and big things in life that make you feel out of this world, and I wish that this feeling soon becomes more and more familiar to all of us!
David Kenna
Portrait Photographer Dublin
I have been gifted with a secret power. A power that at one time I never knew existed but, once discovered, is always close to hand. One that can immediately tell me that this or that drama really isn’t that important at all, or that this argument really is about nothing. One that says, “No matter how much you piss me off, I was born to love you more than anything in the world,” and that’s sooo cool.
It empowers me to say I know where you’re at, without words. It allows me to be an idiot, to be ten again, to say sorry. This gift allows me to reach out from my soul to someone else’s and give it a little tickle when they are having a shitty day… But the real secret? We all have this gift.
Drop a smile in to the frown pool and watch the ripples!
Visit David’s photography website – www.dakphotography.ie
Dawn Cartwright
Tantra Teacher
It was one of those effervescent mornings where the sun seemed to find its way into every corner of the world, and the world, adoring this undivided attention, lit up like a jewel in a store front window. The bed was tousled in a way that seduced both dreams and desires as crisp white sheets, feather duvets and soft pillows filled every edge to the brim and overflowing.
My lover pulled me into his arms and I sank into his chest and belly as our bodies emerged from deep slumber. I took him in in the mood of the morning, brilliant, strong and full. It was in this moment that I realized that everything had changed. That lovemaking, for me, would never be the same, ever again.
For, as he entered me, he entered my whole being. From the moment he touched me there was nothing in me that was not filled by him. It was as if the light around us was now streaming within us from his body into mine. I was flooded by the beauty of this man and something beyond the both of us. The atmosphere between us crackled with electric charge and all my senses were flooded with what could only be described as otherworldly sensation. Our lovemaking entered, simultaneously, into a cellular and cosmic level and it was as if nothing had ever existed but this. I felt the world born within me, within every atom of my being.
We loved one another that morning suspended in time. And the beauty of it is just how simple that morning was … simple and human and tender … out of this world, and yet, very much a part of it.
www.chandrabindutantrainstitute.com
Matjan Jeuken
Wanderer
When lights buzz the sky, my world changes. I forget my worries. I am witnessing another possible reality. It rocks my world with excitement, a state of wonder – contemplating the magnificence of a grander reality of intelligence.
To my disappointment, this world seems to continue unchanged. Did they not see it? Why don’t they talk about it? Are they even open to the possibility? Indeed, it would rattle science and faith. Yet, that mysterious world continues travelling through space and time, observing a cosmos of life; this world of terrestrials, boxed in, barely able to contemplate the reality of having cosmic brothers and sisters.
I believe this planet is being engaged more and more as we enter a time of great transformation. When our Collective consciousness is open enough to this possible reality, perhaps then there will be sightings, landings and communications on a much larger level that cannot be denied.
Andrew Smith
Astrologer
For several weeks throughout October and early November 1992, I had felt a strong compulsion to head out and look at the stars for the first time and invited my father to join me. We drove to the Rocky Valley in Kilmacanoge and wandered around the hillocks looking at the night sky. We decided to do a small meditation in our car. After several minutes, we heard loud clicking noises surround us, and were bathed in iridescent white light. The noises ebbed and flowed for twenty minutes before disappearing. During the meditation it felt as if I was being pulled out into the stars and was inflated with the idea to study the psychology of the stars. Perplexed, we returned night after night for three weeks to have the same experience, which suddenly stopped in mid-December. During each meditation, I kept getting the same message.
The rest is history!
dastroc@gmail.com
Orla Phelan
Natural Healer
As a child, my family thought I suffered from “night terrors.” “You are dreaming,” they would say. To them it seemed impossible that (awake) I could be experiencing anything beyond what they were experiencing. But I was. I was experiencing visitations from other beings who would sing, chant and pitch notes around me. They spoke a language I couldn’t decipher, and they existed in a world like a hologram existing on top of this reality. Since then, I have consciously left my body on many occasions; I have heard sounds from the cosmos, travelled through space; been to other planets where I’ve felt such incredible love, met the head of the fairies, seen the gnomes and elves; the stars have talked to me; my version of God has even appeared.
We are created by love. We have been sleeping in an illusion and now we are all waking up.
allswellireland@gmail.com