Happy New Year! I wish you all good things in 2019. May it be your favorite year yet!
Today’s the last day for the December 2018 Special and Discounted Gift Certificates. If you’d like either or both of those, please contact me by 5 p.m. Eastern US time on December 31st. On January 1, 2019, my business gets a reboot. I’ve got a new business name, different PayPal account, and five new products for release in January, including a guided Lyme recovery journal. I’ll announce changes and cluster those new offerings by theme throughout the month.
For the New Year, I felt led to discount the very popular New Year Tarot Readings and have also had requests to offer the Three for Two Special, a chance for extra support and focus. Details below:
JANUARY 2019 SPECIALS
$44 New Year Tarot Special
Half-hour tarot reading at 20% off the usual rate. Tarot readings offer an energetic check-in, the chance to ask questions about pending decisions or intentions, and represent a fun, yet powerful way to gain perspective on relationships and challenges. They can also be used to offer a snapshots of the coming months and year.
Tarot readings are particularly good for people who don’t know what kinds of questions to ask me; they just want some kind of guidance because they feel unsure of what’s coming or what to focus upon. Tarot also seems to benefit those people who have exceptionally good things coming their way, yet wonder if I might be “padding the reading” or “just saying what they want to hear.” The cards don’t lie. (Neither do I – but the cards seem an even more objective medium for delivering good news.)
Please contact me if you’d like to sign up for this special. Offer valid if prepaid on or before 1/31/19.
Three For Two
So many people have asked me to repeat this special to help them jump start the New Year, so here it is. Three hours for the price of two: save $222. This package can be used in whatever increments you choose — hour, 40-minute, half-hour, or 20-miute sessions — and for whatever services you’d like — Medical Intuition, Life Coaching, Astrology, Relationship Clarity, Soul Readings, or any other related service. $444 if prepaid on or before 1/31/19. Please contact me to sign up.
Most people know that I have a long and close relationship with owls and more recently with foxes. But not everyone knows about my deep love of hedgehogs. I think they’re adorable, and all through gifts, they’re slowly gaining a foothold in Dra’Faven. I took a photo of the Fox Faery doll Tania gave me for Christmas, showing how without prior planning, she fit in perfectly with the animals and crystals. I mentioned the orgone ferret curled up alongside her, as well as the amethysts.
Tania said, “…All so magickal. And that hedgehog is also cute.” That prompted me to take pictures of the other resident hedgehogs. I didn’t realize we had so many until I snapped the photos! These ones said they’re OK making a blog appearance. The two characters below arrived for Christmas/Solstice from our friends Tracy and Chip. They’re sitting alongside a magick rock painted by Tania back when David and I still lived in Goshen:
David brought this little reader home for me earlier this year:
I can’t remember who gave me this first one. It’s been so long now — early Goshen years — but this stuffed hedgehog can roll himself up in a ball just like the real ones:
Lastly, David and I share joint custody of this little crystal hedgehog that Tania gave us last year. Right now, David’s got custody, and CHH (Crystal Hedgehog)’s hanging out in “The Imaginarium,” aka David’s office:
With all these hedgehogs around, I decided to look up hedgehog wisdom, which I’ve done before, too. The messages seem even more appropriate now, so I thought I’d share. According to animalspirits.com, Hedgehog Wisdom includes:
Wisdom of the female elders
Fertility
Defense against negativity
Enjoyment of life
Understanding weather patterns
Other websites echo the call to enjoy life, but also to share your gifts. Don’t curl up and hide; spread those gifts in a bigger way. This goes right along with my post about integrating my Capricorn North Node with my Plutonian need for privacy. Hedgehogs also remind us to have strong boundaries and energetic protection, but to remain curious about life. Mostly, I just think they’re cute. They melt my heart a little every time I see them, so having hedgehogs around keeps the person David calls “The Biggest Faery” a very merry Faery, indeed!
I’m curious if you have an animal totem or favorite animals? If so, how do they show up in your life?
From Dra’Faven with love … Merry Christmas, and Happy Whatever You Celebrate! Wishing you and yours a special day. I’m about to get very busy in the kitchen, preparing the rest of today’s vegan Indian extravaganza. It’s a quiet holiday here, with a Canadian friend from Goshen joining us and family visits later in the week. May the glow and childlike wonder of this season fill your heart and make you smile. Much love!
Thanks to reader and friend Diana for sending a link to this article, called “Sounds as Healer.” The article gives background on the power of chants, music and various types of sound as healing or destructive. I’ve long embraced the power of sound — especially chants — for moving energy, but it’s always a treat to read of humanity’s ancient and varied traditions of healing sounds.
If you scroll to the very end of the article, on the bottom right side you’ll find a play button for Lia Scallon’s “Song of the Sidhe.” For those who don’t know, legends, folklore, and direct human contact indicate that the Sidhe (pronounced Shee) are Dwellers of the Mounds, a regal Faerie race related to humans. I’ve written about them many times and even took an online Sidhe course in April and May 2018. In my experience, the Sidhe are highly creative and interested in bringing beauty and healing from their dimension into ours. If you don’t feel like reading a long article but want to hear some Sidhe-inspired music, just scroll to the bottom right of this linked page. So lovely I wanted to share!
Astrology mentor, permaculturist and friend Ann Kreilkamp just reminded me via email about the unusual lineup this coming Solstice (Winter in the Northern Hemisphere, Summer in the Southern Hemisphere), 12/21/18. “Sol-” “Sun” “-stice” “still” effects last three days, so the Full Moon on 12/22/18 still activates those Solstice energies. I love the numbers, too! “The 1221 meaning is to begin again and to strive forward. It represents your inspirations and initiatives” (more here) . The Full Moon date has a 222 embedded in it, reminding us to keep the faith. Don’t dig up the seeds too soon; just because we can’t see it doesn’t mean they aren’t sprouting in the soil. Soil/Soul … Sol/Soul. This is a deeply soulful and potent time. As Ann put it in this morning’s email:
Solstice with Full Moon 0° Cap/Cancer, can you believe?
Ah yes, and this year’s Winter Solstice with the Full Moon, which happens only every 19 years, on the average. Any zero degrees New or Full Moons on the Solstices or Equinoxes contacts the Aries point (0* Aries), node of brand new beginnings for the entire zodiacal cycle to come, at every level. Re-booting the human hard drive to choose peace, prosperity, and abundance, in cooperation with each other and Nature. Let’s shoot for that. Shoot for the stars.
David and I have already been sensing the reboot energy. This Friday marks two years of marriage for us. Last year at this time, David had recently quit his job in Goshen in order to seek employment in Kalamazoo. Although David’s joking texts with our friend Tim Martin revealed eerie precognition of David’s new career, on Winter Solstice 2017, we had no idea what he’d be doing. We just knew he needed to take that leap of faith.
December 16, 2017 brought the shocking, traumatic, and in retrospect, perfectly timed passing of the same friend Tim. We learned about it on 12/17/17 when Tim’s ex-wife and daughter managed to get his cell phone to call me. I posted a tribute to Tim and have referenced him on occasion. He remains “active,” still a dear and helpful friend across the veil.
Yesterday brought some synchronous repetition of memorable things I did on 12/17/17. I always find it fascinating when life cycles in obvious ways. By comparison/contrast, it provides undeniable evidence of growth and change. Instead of shock and grief, yesterday, David and I experienced multiple periods of extreme gratitude and satisfaction. This included David’s career for which he began interviews last Winter Solstice. The past twelve months brought so much healing and internal change to me. When I compare who I am now with who I was a year ago, I feel grounded, secure, clear and grateful in exponentially deeper ways.
This year, we have some quiet celebrations planned, as the cosmic alignments mirror our own feeling of reset. David tells me his word for 2019 is “Cruise,” as in “we’ve hit cruising altitude after a long ascent.” Mine is “Thrive.” In these last days of 2018, and during this powerful 0° Full Moon Solstice, I wish you clarity, peace and joy. The Wheel of the Year reminds us that all things change. Just like the Seasons of the Earth, there is life in death, and death in life. At this still point of the Sun … Peace.
I mentioned in February’s “Reclaiming Roots and a Writing Update” that my word for 2018 was “Roots,” and my focus was writing a book with a working title, The Metaphysics of Lyme. By “roots,” I meant both Root Chakra and exploring my Celtic roots/family heritage in much deeper ways. With just over two weeks left of 2018, it seems like a good time to take stock. How did I do?
Root Chakra and Writing
The Muladhara Chakra includes the colon, roots, and origins, as well as foundations, survival, finances, and structures. In those regards, 2018 was steeped in Muladhara! Early in the year, I did not one, but two, colon cleanses, and David and I spent this year laying firm foundations for our future. Despite my permaculture projects in Goshen, we never saw ourselves staying in Goshen, but we bought a house in Kalamazoo because we intend to stay here. David’s a Taurus, so he likes putting down roots, but with my Mercury and Gemini dominant chart, I have never imagined myself staying anywhere long term.
This new attitude shifted many things for me, including feeling a much more vested interest in would-be top-down Township Board decisions for our neighborhood. Um, nooooooo, excuse me, but that’s not how it works in my neighborhood! If I can’t easily just pull up stakes, then I very much become the guardian of our yard. Never one to do things halfway, I also found myself unofficially elected as one of two key guardians of our entire neighborhood. Summer 2018 took me from knowing just three acquaintances in our neighborhood to being recognized by almost everyone who lives here (around 90 people). I don’t just know my neighbors to nod hi. I know life stories, intimate health and financial details, favorite flowers, and their grandchildren.
I also know vulnerabilities of Board Members, as well as having my finger on the pulse of many Township going’s on — current, past and future. We forged an alliance with Public Works, and we’ve got communications and pioneer roots in areas as diverse as the Road Commission, fire department, and nearby churches. In short, I have never felt this connected to a neighborhood. Regardless of final outcomes still (still!) pending, I feel rooted in our immediate location in ways I have never felt before.
Now that we’ve set up our home in Kalamazoo for the long haul, David and I are dotting i’s and crossing t’s in all the legal, financial and business areas. After much consideration, I decided to rename my business and restructure things in preparation for releasing a bunch of books and products in 2019. This shift in focus delayed releasing The Metaphysics of Lyme; however, it has freed me for a January 2019 release of four books/guided journals that I’ve long wished someone would create.
It turns out, I’m that someone, and I have them ready to roll in January. Those people eagerly awaiting The Metaphysics of Lyme can rest easy that one of these items is a guided Lyme recovery workbook based on my 17+ years as a Medical Intuitive. I feel like the metaphysics book will benefit from this self-help foundation, as the workbook makes the concepts easier to understand in a personal and hands on way. Plus, separating the guided workbook portion into its own separate book has allowed me to deepen the focus of both books. Two of the other products will support anyone who’s taken Reiki 2 and/or Reiki Level 3, and I’ll keep the fourth as a surprise. I’m working on a fifth project, too, but I don’t know if I’ll have that one finished by January. We shall see.
If I were a tree, I’d say that prioritizing “Roots” has made me aware of a need for stronger, deeper, wider roots, which will ultimately allow for a much taller, broader, healthier canopy.
Ancestral Roots
My surprise, formalized astrology mentorship with Ann Kreilkamp led me to explore not just my own but also my entire family’s astrological charts. I now have a much more comprehensive picture of the why’s and how’s of my family of origin. I’ve delved into the astrological roots of my own values, quirks and gifts, and I took twelve years of armchair astrology very deep, very fast. Studying astrology came so easily to me that it felt like its own reclamation of earlier lifetimes. Astrology also provides a nice “left brain” confirmation to my wildest intuitions: “Yep. There it is!” or “Ohhhhhhh, that’s why I sense that potential.”
Embracing my Celtic roots (25% Irish and 24% British Isles, including Scotland and Wales), I signed up for Dr. Sharon Blackie’s year long Celtic Studies course. I appreciate her scholarly approach, as I wanted to learn authentic traditions, not New Age fluff with a Celtic veneer. We just started Module 9, so I won’t finish that course in 2018. I definitely have Celtic blood coursing through my veins and values. No doubt about that. I even learned that the 8% Iberian Peninsula expressed in my DNA is Celtic, since that seaboard shared much more trade and culture with the Celtic nations than with mainland Europe. My 11% Scandinavian (that shows up in my love of Runes and Norse mythology) likely springs from invasions of the British Isles. All of which makes me very much a Celt. No surprise there, but the course brought a lot of aha moments.
Some of my reactions to the course surprised me, though. The more I studied, the more I realized that a love of storytelling is one of the most Celtic parts of me. Trying to nail down Celtic history is a bit of a fool’s errand, as the Celts riff and spin mythology in and around whatever order tries to assert itself. I learned that most of Irish religious history is spurious at best. Due to the oral nature of Druids and other sects, we can only surmise from documents transcribed by Christian monks or invading generals.
The Celtic Revival of the 19th and 20th centuries was extremely creative. Read “highly romanticized” or “invented whole cloth.” While that might deflate some people, I found it liberating. Getting back my Celtic Roots doesn’t mean pining after traditions long past. Every time I tell a tale, I honor my Ancestors. Each time I address the urge to beautify something or make it more interesting, I honor my Ancestors. When I recognize the Divine speaking through all of life, I honor those same Ancestors.
I also finally owned my American roots, which go way back. I am a Daughter of the American Revolution via my grandmothers lineage on both sides of the family. Their blood and their values run through me, too. Very much so. Not knowing my family’s connections to the Revolutionary War until my twenties, I find it fascinating that I spent much of my youth and college years researching revolutions and early American History. Having delved into these generational roots, I feel much more grounded in the present, both time and place. That’s no small thing for someone who hops timelines and does past life readings as much as I do!
Another ironic thing to come from my Celtic Studies course is a greater appreciation for my Eastern European Roots, since those are much more recent than the Celtic ones. My paternal grandfather was born in Eastern Europe — an area called “Galatia” that became part of many countries, including modern day Ukraine and Russia. I’ve always felt strong connections to Russia and even visited there for two weeks between junior and senior year of high school. For some reason, though, I never did much with the culture.
As poor, illiterate, farm immigrants to Hawaii, my dad’s paternal side of the family kept its history swathed in mystery. Until my DNA test confirmed 25% Eastern European and <1% Jewish, I wondered if they had fled due to WW2. Was my dad’s dad’s family Jewish? Nazi’s? Why the secrecy? An uncle speculated that the Derbenwick’s were Dutch, with the “original” name more like a place name. I didn’t find that credible, but who knew? When I got my Ancestry DNA test in 2016, I shared the results with my aunt (his wife) who does genealogy as a hobby. I said that the test confirmed exactly one quarter of me was Eastern European and I had less than 2% Western European. “I don’t think the Derbenwick’s were Dutch.”
She exchanged information she had learned, and we pieced together that my grandfather’s family came over much earlier than I thought, long before WW2, even way before WW1. The refusal to discuss heritage apparently came from poverty and illiteracy, since my grandfather’s sisters proudly paid for his education all the way to a Stanford PhD in Chemical Engineering. His sisters also became teachers, but they stayed in Hawaii. Through Ancestry DNA, I have since received many documents and newspaper articles from the late 19th and early 20th century that fill in gaps of family history. It seems my family had its own Eastern European “Twilight” in which hazy details became even hazier, all in the name of education and white collar work. Unbeknownst to me, all that permaculture/urban farming I did in Goshen was reclaiming my father’s and paternal grandfather’s roots, too.
Despite all this mystery — or perhaps because of it — I loved my Grandpa Frank above anyone else. He was my very best friend, taught me how to draw, told me stories, and made me laugh. I have vivid memories of him, even though he died when I was three. He visited me in spirit form all through childhood, finding a lost hat, helping me with art projects. I didn’t know that talking with the dead was weird, because Grandpa Frank was such good company!
I mention all this because I noticed something curious in recent photos. I look more Eastern European!
David took this at the Grand Rapids Art Museum, because apparently, my “Roots” also made me blend into the artwork. True, the lighting makes my reddish hair look dark brown, but this photo and the one below remind me of so many pictures I took of locals on my trip to Russia.
In any case, I would say that 2018 manifested the intention of reclaiming “Roots,” even roots I didn’t realize I needed to reclaim. I’m curious if any of you chose a word for 2018. If so, how did that play out? Feel free to share in the comments below, if you feel so led.
The very first thing I look at when I’m doing a medical intuitive reading is your overall chi level. What is your chi level? Your chi level is a subjective reading of your life energy. The word chi is familiar to those of us who practice yoga, tai chi and qi gong as well as […]
Source: https://catherinecarrigan.com/what-is-your-chi-level/
In the video below, you’ll find Dolores Cannon providing an excellent description of multiple timeline scenarios all in simultaneous existence. Her discussion has implications for everyday living, crossroads choices and healing, as well as ways the collective creates a New Earth.
This topic of multiple timelines arises in my own sessions, especially when people feel stuck by certain “past events.” When I try to explain that they can choose a different past, I get a lot of long pauses and resistance, along with the occasional, “Really?! I can do that?!” Yes, really. If you know Reiki Level 2, it’s even easier due to the distant healing symbol. I used to teach an all-day class solely on the power of that symbol. Even without knowing Reiki, you can use your mind, attention and intention to hop timelines at will. With full integration, you can hop to a completely alternate perceived…
Just a few of this morning’s hints of Christmas here at Dra’Faven:
Kalamazoo has a dusting of white outside, but December’s steel gray, short days make little spots of light and color all the more enjoyable. I love the contrasts of this season: dark and light, cold and cozy, busy and still. How do you bring warmth and glow into a chilly world? In what ways do you allow yourself to shine regardless of the weather, news, or your surroundings? What small act feels like a celebration just for you, just for now?
At this time of year, you may feel an overwhelming pressure to eat and drink. Between endless parties, the stress of preparing for family gatherings and the time and financial constraints of shopping for gifts on top of your regular obligations, you may be craving sugar even more strongly than usual. Here are a few […]
Source: https://catherinecarrigan.com/natural-healing-remedies-for-sugar-addiction/
As always, I offer the monthly specials based on my sense of what will most support the coming energies and needs.
December’s family and work gatherings present special challenges for empaths. In addition to all the planetary, cosmic and political energies tipping empathic effects way beyond the usual scale, sensitive people attuned to Mother Earth often feel fires, earthquakes and floods in their own bodies and emotions. Add to this empathing the experiences of so many people who’ve lost their homes or witnessed traumas, and empaths are being asked to find a new balance between compassion and self-care, between “we are all one” and nurturing and protecting our own energy body.
My heart goes out to all of those facing inner and outer challenges this holiday season. Through the “oxygen mask principle,” I hope that directly supporting empaths will allow greater love, energy and peace to radiate in strong waves across our world. Peace in, peace out.
DECEMBER 2018 SPECIAL and GIFT CERTIFICATES:
Energy Protection for Empaths
This 20-minute offering shares tips and techniques specifically tailored to your own energy field and the challenges you face as a “Sensitive” or “Empath” — someone who deeply feels the emotions and energies of others, including the larger collective energies and emotions. Empaths have intuitive, psychic, and healing gifts that can feel more like a curse when faced with discord, negative or disharmonious frequencies like EMF’s, groupthink, or emotional overwhelm.
As someone whose already very thin veil practically disappeared with a 1998 brain injury, I have learned through trial and error, extensive research and over 17 years as a professional Medical Intuitive, how to protect the energy field so that those “gifts” actually live up to their potential. These tips and techniques don’t mean you stop feeling the energies; however, they allow you to recognize more clearly when something’s “yours” and when it’s not. They also help you much more quickly return to peace, soul sovereignty, joy, and allow you to exercise much greater healing influence in your life and in our world.
$77 for the 20 minutes if prepaid on or before 12/31/2018. This session can also be doubled for a 40-minute session at $154. For more information or to sign up, please contact me here.
Gift Certificates:
Each year, people ask if they can gift a session to a loved one. I like to offer a discount to honor the love and care behind this gift. Certificates purchased in 2018 will remain valid through December 31, 2019. Since people always ask me this: no, you may not purchase a gift certificate for yourself. You can, however, request someone else get you a gift certificate. When you contact me to order a gift certificate, please let me now the name of the person you’re gifting, as well as any details you’d like me to include on the certificate. I’ll create and email you a personalized PDF, which you can email or print out for your loved one.
2018 gift certificates cover any of my services at $99/half hour instead of the usual rate of $133/half hour.
I know many of my blog readers also subscribe to Lee Harris, but I felt this energy forecast was important to share for everyone here. So many recent sessions have covered similar material, especially with people empathing the intense planetary, cosmic and political energies.
I’ve had sessions with other intuitives and energy workers who don’t normally “need” sessions but who’ve found themselves at their wits’ end the last few weeks. There should be no shame in this at all! We each go through our own challenges and shifts, and no one needs to be perfect. (Whatever “perfect” even means!) Be gentle with yourself and positive opportunities will reveal themselves.
As Lee says, this intensity will likely continue through February, so developing a strategy and tools to thrive is time well spent. Even if you already have a spiritual awareness practice, you might find yourself “leveling up” in different areas:
David and I had one of the loveliest Thanksgiving Weekends we’ve enjoyed together, just the two of us because David was on call Thursday. He did not, however, get called and so we made our own mostly gluten-free, entirely vegan feast, took a luxurious nap, watched a movie and puttered around the house.
In addition to the yummies below, I made gf vegan pumpkin pie (cashew based). The stuffing below is topped with a fermented celery “dressing” we began right after this previous post about Pickle Pipes. We had our doubts, but the celery did, indeed, end up delicious. The live, fermented food made digesting this big meal a breeze. (Recipe from “Fermented Vegetables,” by Christopher Shockey and Kirsten K. Shockey. The faux turkey was from Gardein and the only gluten containing part of our dinner.)
On Saturday, we decided to check out the W.K. Kellogg Estate, also known as “Eagle Heights.” Located on Gull Lake, this summer estate of Will Keith Kellogg features a Christmas crafts bazaar each year. We had no idea what to expect, but we like touring old manors. David thought it might transition us from Thanksgiving to the Christmas Season, and it sure did! This manor has so much history. With warm and informative volunteers, gorgeous decorations, 1,600-foot shoreline, crafts, Bird Sanctuary and the manor itself, we felt like we walked into a simpler time and place.
The entire back side of the house overlooks Gull Lake. Every rear window offers expansive views of trees, gardens and water.
One of the volunteers noticed a group of very faery looking girls and their moms hanging out by the fire. When she launched into story time, we joined to hear all sorts of tales about the eccentric Kellogg brothers, their Seventh Day Adventist diets, and W.K. Kellogg’s generous offers to various people and organizations to use his home. Who knew he created Corn Flakes specifically as an at the time unheard of vegetarian breakfast option?
In the library to the left of the entryway, we met these cuties:
We also saw the framed list of “W.K. Kellogg’s Lucky Seven Times Seven”:
Kellogg name has seven letters
WK’s father, John Preston Kellogg was born in 1807
WK’s father was a seventh child in his family
WK was born on April 7, 1860
WK was born on the seventh day of the week
WK was his father’s seventh son
WK had seven grandsons
“If one seven is good, seven sevens ought to be better. Who can fail to make a success in anything wih a combination of seven times seven in the family?” ~ W.K. Kellogg, 1931
The architect was instructed to use elements of seven throughout the home wherever possible –some of the sevens are:
In a weekend of synchronicities, this room proved one of the richer ones for us. My mom, who collects owls, shares the same April 7 birthday as John Preston Kellogg. Owls show up for me whenever I undergo some major timeline shift or event in my life. I either see them, hear them, or other people feel compelled to tell me they just saw or heard an owl. You can find much more on those owl sync winks here, and in Mike Clelland’s “Stories from the Messengers” book, which features some of my own and my mom’s owl experiences.
In any case, this number and owl synchronicity came as validation of some curious timeline twists and turns that transpired on Friday and Saturday. Late afternoon on Friday, I looked out to see hundreds of crows circling and dive bombing each other across the street. I’ve seen crows before, but the only time I’ve seen that many doing such things was in the weeks following my 1998 traumatic brain injury. I documented the time I spent recovering at my parents’ house in an essay called “The Backyard Owl,” because, yes, while the crows swarmed in the sky, an owl sat outside during the day, watching me as I watched him.
The crows on Friday got so rowdy and so numerous, that I texted Tania Marie: “… It’s cool. Haven’t seen this many at once since right after my car accident.”
Tania: “About a week ago we had tons of Ravens following us at Fallen Leaf Lake and cawing and making odd noises. Maybe they know something up”
Me: “Could be. Someone on my Celtic Studies forum mentioned similar last week. … She thought hers was related to CA fires. Definitely some strange behaviors. After my injury when I sat witht he owl all the time at my parents’, crows fought daily for weeks. That was surreal. Like warfare of two rival armies in the skies and the Owl just sat still on a branch watching me. All quiet now.”
Tania: “Could be the fires … different in different areas and for various reasons but collectively connected.”
Me: “Yes, always more going on!”
Then Saturday morning, Tania and I had another flurry of texts in which I told her about a “download” I received right after the crows stopped. This was related to alternate timelines, my novel “Schizandra and the Gates of Mu”, and a path not taken that now, nine years later makes so much sense why I felt so led to shut down my original trajectory. This clarity felt like when I saw news of the fires in Santa Rosa, CA which burned down the neighborhood right next to where I used to live in 2009.
You can read the details at link above, but long story short, towards the end of 2009, I began experiencing what I would now term pre-TSD. I kept getting visions and audio that I called “a roar and light barrelling towards me,” “a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire.” Dreams, visions, and an urgent sense to “get out now,” that my life depended upon it led to me getting divorced and leaving California. Again, synchronous owls marked that passage (also described in “Stories from the Messengers,” as well as at the link above). All of these tales keep looping back on each other in a kind of fractal synchronous timeline soup.
In any case … I got a mega download about the direction of my writing, exactly why I switched Schizandra’s cover and changed genres at the last moment, then shut down the entire series that could have gone a very different way. After texting Tania on Saturday morning, since she was also involved in the switcheroo, I went to put on shoes for David’s and my excursion to Eagle Heights. As soon as I picked up the little ankle boots — not new, mind you — I shrieked, because all of a sudden the materials were different. So different that it startled me, thinking I had a mouse in my shoe or something. These originally all “leather” boots suddenly had two different materials, including a now very soft “suede” around the backs. I put the materials in quotes because these are NOT the shoes I bought, and yet they are… .
If you live in my world, these kinds of things startle and make you question your memory, but they also happen often enough to fit a certain pattern of weirdness. I’ve blogged many times about timeline changes, alternate realities, timeline tune-ups, non-linear time and pre-cognition. I don’t claim to know exactly how the Universe works … only that it doesn’t always run in a linear fashion. When making a “reality upgrade,” sometimes the details don’t quite match up. In June 2016, I shared in a post called “Big Shifts and Timeline Splits“:
I spent last week in a series of deep, involved dreams — the kind you know were not “just dreams.” In one such dream, I found myself sitting on a couch next to someone who had emotionally abused me for much of my life. Just as that person began the old bait and switch style “generosity,” I suddenly began dry heaving. Not only could I not swallow the bait and switch, but it was triggering an interdimensional vomit session.
This person yelled at me to get off “his” couch (which it wasn’t), so I ran to the bathroom and started vomiting concrete and gravelly sludge into the sink. The “vomit” came not from my stomach, but from my lungs, and it more than filled the sink. I awoke from the dream because I was literally dry heaving so loudly in bed that it pulled me out of sleep. The moment I awoke, though, I felt completely different. Free, light, and on a different timeline.
Sure enough, some “facts” and relationships were very different than they had been when I went to bed the night before. Also, in one of those cosmic winks I see so often in timeline jumps, in which some things no longer match up, the doorknob of the blue house now turns in the opposite direction as before. It used to require an extremely hard left turn to enter that house. As of that morning, the door started giving me all sorts of trouble, until a couple days later, I realized, “Ha! It’s the opposite now. A hard turn right gets you in with no effort. The timeline’s winking at me.” Sure enough, it works no problem to enter with a hard right turn, but in a further upgrade, it so happens our landlord is getting us entirely new doorknobs and keys for both front and back doors. This old front doorknob will move to replace the old garage entrance.
Doors are highly symbolic of timeline shifts. It’s one reason I paint portal doors to preferred realities. Since that shift, my mom’s old house is now under contract. It took a huge amount of work and two Reiki Healing Attunements, but that house sold in under three weeks amidst massive synchronicities.
Like the doorknob in 2016, shoes are also highly symbolic: “If the shoe fits …”. Think of Cinderella’s timeline shift with her shoe. In this case, I confirmed with David that the shoes never had that double material before. He was the one who insisted I buy those shoes in the first place, while I was much more excited about some multi material red, brown, tan and black boots I bought at the same time. We both concluded that we would have noticed these ankle boots being two different materials. They’re much more interesting now than they’ve been all the other times I wore them. Also, the hand feel was so different that I literally yelped and dropped the boot when I picked it up to put on my feet. I cannot prove the boot shifted as a timeline change marker, but that’s the kind of bizarre detail that usually confirms it for me.
That kind of detail and the appearance of one or more owls. Whenever three owls show up, it really seals the deal. The room decorated with three white owls, a reference to my mother’s birthday, and seven sevens (which also refer to my character Schizandra’s Life Path Number Seven) … well … it all adds up. To what?! Who knows, but I was already feeling so much clarity about the old and new writing directions, as well as huge appreciation for how well my intuition and the animal kingdom guide my ways.
OK, back to our Saturday adventure. We walked upstairs to all the crafts and views from the second level:
We bought some Christmas gifts, and then headed downstairs and outside:
One of the volunteers’ daughters got married on this pier … on a warmer day, of course!
You can sort of see the shoes there, but it was a dark and gloomy day, which made the decorations and lights all the more festive:
There are something like 89 steps from the manor to the lake shore, and W.K. walked them twice per day. He lived to age 91.
We walked back around front and said our goodbyes to the most amazing trees. As usual, whenever I find an extremely faery tree like our birch or the one with so many faces on it at Eagle Heights, my laptop and WordPress conspire not to let me post the photo. This gives you a sense of the 1920’s manor and some of the tree friends, though.
Synchronicities continued when we got home, and I began reading Eric Wargo’s book, “Time Loops: Precognition, Retrocausation and the Unconscious.” It kind of reads like a bunch of scientific studies proving the validity of how I live my life. In any case, it makes sense of so many experiences I’ve had — way too much weirdness to explore here. If it sounds like I post some wild stuff on my blog or in books, please realize that I censor myself very heavily. (All that Plutonian privacy stuff!)
In yesterday’s post, I mentioned timeline jumps and a dream about a golden frog. This was a multi-layered dream, with mundane, larger personal and (I believe) collective timeline relevance. Things moved along in fairly “normal” ways until I found myself very aware of needing to tread lightly with someone in the dream. This person was shouting in outrage about people including their name on a gift, giving them credit without asking them to contribute. I got an intuitive flash about this person’s unreasonable reactivity and why people had carefully tiptoed around the person in the first place, giving credit where credit wasn’t due, just to avoid the explosion. Immediately, I felt bad for “thinking negatively about” the person, yet (still dreaming) I couldn’t shake the intuition that this was not a safe person, that interactions required caution.
Against my own will, I found myself saying to the person, “Wouldn’t you have lashed out if the exact opposite happened? If they hadn’t included you?”
Inside, I thought, “Laura, zip it! Why poke the elephant? You know it’s there. Do you really need to put this to the test?”
To my surprise, just as we were crossing a threshold, the person in the dream looked sheepish and admitted, “Yeah, I would have been pissed either way.”
At that very moment, as we crossed the threshold and this person confirmed my intuition, a golden frog hopped across the threshold, too, right before the person closed the sliding glass door. It was a shiny, golden frog, about three inches long, with a white underbelly. It started hopping to steps and then down to the front door, and I followed it.
“Don’t let the dog eat it. That shiny skin might mean it’s poisonous. Don’t touch the golden frog.” With a kind of Faerie Realm logic, I knew the golden frog wasn’t poisonous to me, but would be to others. The frog also reminded me I had meant to pick up gifts at the front door before getting sidetracked by the volatile person’s freak out.
Hop, hop, hop … and out the door the frog and I went.
I looked up frog wisdom: frog appears to those who hear messages from the other side. It is connected with knowing when to speak up and how to navigate your way through situations. It also arrived in the dream just like the “pings” arrive in those synchronous confirmations of really out there intuitions that eventually prove true. “Time Loops” posits that all or at least most ESP is, in fact, “precognition” of information acquired via ordinary means in the future and then pre-remembered by the present self. I’ve mentioned this possibility to many people, including Mike Clelland during his extensive interviews of me for “Stories from the Messengers.”
Finding an entire book exploring this topic from a scientific and personal angle is “golden.” It removes that little doubt/judgment I’ve often felt when I get intuitive warning about someone or something … and then feel bad for thinking negatively about that situation or person. I know to follow my intuition, because it does lead me well. It has, quite literally, saved my life, as in the dream warnings to avoid a murderer on my trip to Reno and then still unexplained faxes that confirmed the accuracy of the warnings once I arrived home safely. It’s often difficult to prove a premonition’s truth if you manage to avoid the premonition, but I’ve had so many “whoa” moments.
Due to the twists, turns and never-ending-story-sync-winks, there’s no clear end point to this blog post, so I’ll leave you with this fascinating talk between Gordon White and Eric Wargo. Well worth a listen, if you’re into such things!
Just a quick post, as I’m navigating my own upgrading and expanding timelines. I’ve heard from a number of people, especially in the past few days, asking what’s up with the energies and do I feel them, too? Yes, I do … and what’s up depends on how you focus, how you’re living, how prayerful/intentional/present you are, and what you allow as “possible.”
Whenever chaotic energies arise, they offer easier opportunities for timeline jumps and reality upgrades.
Change will happen, so keep your focus on what you do want, rather than what you don’t want. You can use the increased awareness of negative timelines to clarify the kind of life you do want to live, but if you want to make the most of these powerful energies, then do whatever you can to keep your vibration as high and clear as possible. Trust your intuition, and don’t sweat the small stuff. When timelines shift, some of the non-urgent details tend to shift, as well. I’ll share some of my recent experiences in another post, but suffice to say, some kooky crazy “impossible” things keep happening.
If this happens to you, and you’ve been playing with timelines, ask yourself which things are truly important to you. Do you like the new trajectory? If so, then do the insignificant details need to become an issue? If these details do remain an issue, then they’re not insignificant, in which case, get your intentions and focus ready to shift again. If you need assistance or grounding to clarify what the heck is going on and how to make the most of it, we can set up a session, either for one of November’s Specials or something else. Just let me know.
Big blessings on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride … or, as my morning dream would say … on The Golden Frog’s Wild Hop.
Just a quick note to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and to express gratitude for all my blog readers, clients, friends and family. Thank you for all the wonder and beauty you bring to this world. Thank you for your comments, support and friendship over the months and years. I wish you each a year filled with gratitude, authenticity, playfulness and joy. Big blessings to you and yours!
For years, I’ve found that when a client embraces his or her natal North Node of the Moon, it opens portals where concrete walls once blocked the way. Your South Node represents where you came from — in previous lifetimes and early this life. Your North Node points to your soul’s idea of purpose and success. Like magic, leaning into North Node qualities beckons positive synchronicities, flow, and opportunities. Think “best of the past” with a new, soul-approved, focus and direction. This works in health and other areas of life, so I often explore the North Node in seemingly “unrelated” types of sessions.
Having recognized this power for my clients, I’ve spent the past few years working hard to integrate my own Capricorn North Node, but not without some challenges. Read “big challenges” that involve strongly competing desires, goals, and aspects. As with clients, I knew I needed to find ways to honor that North Node while also recognizing my own quirks and ways of summoning energy. I decided to share some of my process, because it illustrates how we can take a complex chart (or competing desires) and embrace instead of run from it. When we know what and whom we’re dealing with, we can make deals that honor all involved. Even if all those aspects exist inside ourselves!
Our natal chart presents a blueprint, but how we build and decorate our lives remains up to us. As with feng shui, learning how to flow with energies and challenges of the birth design makes a huge difference in how we experience our lives:
Do we step into our lives and say, “Ahhhhhh! This is why I’m here!”?
Or do energies short-circuit and block each other, create jarring effects and a cluttered, non-harmonious space?
Does life feel authentic and free?
Or do we feel boxed in by structural limitations and our parents’ or society’s rules and style projected into our own interior design?
My natal chart is filled with Gemini, Air, trickster Mercury, and Aquarius. I have four planets in Gemini –including Saturn– in the 10th house of social status, public life, career and fame. Four or more planets in a house is called a stellium. When a stellium occurs, the themes and goals of that house get extra influence. Traditionally, Capricorn (ruled by Saturn) rules the 10th house, which makes Saturn’s influence here even stronger. My packed 10th house and especially my 10th house Saturn insist on a strong public life and/or career. In the 6th house of health, work, and service, I’ve got a Capricorn North Node.
Remember, along with the 10th house, Saturn rules Capricorn. With this double whammy of 6th and 10th house Saturn influence on my work/career, the responsible, committed Saturn is making his list and checking it twice. Even as a three-year-old, I felt a strong sense of calling and responsibility. I knew I’d write, and I always knew that I needed to find the “right” career of responsible service. Anything less wouldn’t cut it, no matter how much this Gemini dilettante wanted to flit, flirt and dabble her way through life.
In many charts, this Saturn setup might exert the strongest influence in the chart, but not in mine. Along with all that easy-breazy Gemini, I’ve also got an exact Grand Trine in Air with very private Pluto (in Libra), Gemini Sun (conscious mind/identity ) and Aquarius Moon (subconscious and emotions, inner life). Wherever he appears, Pluto acts as a force of nature. In this case, I’ve got Pluto in my 2nd house of values, body, and wealth. With Pluto exactly Trine both Sun and Moon, I experience outer and inner life, conscious and unconscious awareness, through a Plutonian lens. Pluto in my chart has the will and power to refuse the demands of 10th house Saturn and 6th house Capricorn North Node. They say, “Get to work, put yourself out there,” and Pluto says, “You wanna piece o’ me? Huh? You wanna piece? Oh, yeah? Screw you.”
Pluto can wreak havoc in a chart, and my life reflects a strongly aspected Pluto, complete with manynear death experiences. Trying to manipulate or control me through money backfires big time, and I’ve learned the hard way that if I don’t honor Pluto in my body and values, then Pluto tanks my finances. Unlike many people who dread Pluto’s impact, I love and honor my Grand Trine with Pluto. More than that, I respect Pluto’s influence. It’s one of my favorite aspects to explore in natal charts and transits. Sure, Pluto takes you to the Underworld, but that’s where you find real gems.
One astrologer looked at my chart and said, “You have the worst of luck, and the best of luck. You’ve got angels on both sides of the veil, and you walk both sides.”
Yep. I’ve been communicating with the dead since age three.
Life presents me with some of the strangest, scariest adventures, but somehow I always land on my feet. That harmonious Grand Trine with Pluto-Sun-Moon has also given me unusual powers of regeneration, shamanic abilities, and compassion to guide people in the depths of Shadow, finding buried treasure, and helping them rebirth themselves back into the Light. Like Persephone, I journey to the depths, but I always return with Spring in tow. I’m grateful for Pluto’s challenges and the gifts, because I feel them to the core of my being.
And that’s where Saturn has a problem. No one bosses Pluto around and lives to tell the tale. They might survive the ordeal, but they will not be the same person they once were. Pluto’s a badass and fiercely guards his privacy.
Saturn in my chart says, “Ahem, it’s time for that public career. You need to write, put yourself out there, go big. These are the rules. Go big or it will affect your health.”
Pluto says, “Over my dead body … and by the way, I don’t fear death.”
Saturn looks at his watch, clears his throat, sulks, tries a Gemini song and dance, crosses over my Capricorn North Node a few times, and Pluto just stares him down.
Unimpressed. Unamused.
Pluto knows that he’ll win any face-off, because Pluto will crash and burn, fail for spite, die and reinvent himself. If Pluto seems to have given up, he’s gone subterranean. He’s relentless, and he’ll pop up just to prove he can. Add to this showdown that my disciplinarian Saturn is closely Trine my rebel/innovator/anarchist Uranus, which also lives in the 2nd house with Pluto. Practicality? Doing things because “this is what you have to do to make money”? Uh-uh.
My Saturn and Capricorn North Node know they’re outmatched, even though they want the best for me. All they can do is appeal to conscience. They get some help because my Uranus in Libra exactly opposes my 8th house wounded healer Chiron in Aries. This centaur pleads with Uranus to embody his ideals of liberation and brotherly love. Traditionally, Pluto rules the 8th house, so my Chiron has some inroads to Pluto. Like Chiron, Pluto understands wounds and feels compassion for people undergoing an Underworld Initiation. Despite the desire for privacy, Pluto really does enjoy heartfelt intimacy. He just hates superficial stuff, power plays, or feeling trapped. In a battle of wills, Pluto wins, but he can be softened by compassion, just as zany Uranus will conform enough to support the Highest Good of All.
So what does all of this mean to my personal, work, and writing life?
I’ve grappled with the competing elements and come to realize which ones feel malleable and which ones will not budge. I love and feel committed to the intuitive coaching career I’ve had for 17 years, but I have never felt led to create an empire with that business or become a household name. I need to allow “my Cosmic Secretary” free reign in synchronously bringing the right clients at the right time. I enjoy the sense of Mystery, as well as my Cosmic Secretary’s uncanny ability to clear my schedule when I’ll need a break, to replace emergency cancellations with emergency session requests, and to keep my finances flowing in a balanced way. With Uranus and Pluto in the 2nd house, hats off to my Cosmic Secretary! I’m in awe of how she manages unruly Laura Bruno.
Since buying a house in Kalamazoo, Taurus hubby David and I feel led to put down roots. For me, that means more than getting settled. It also means restructuring the foundations and goals of my business after 17 years. It means David and me working with financial planners, a new accountant, and an attorney to get our wills, etc. in order. I’m on David’s health, vision and dental insurance, and I got a full physical and blood work for the first time since 2007. All clear, and all very Capricorn.
From the outside looking in, my business won’t seem too different. I’ll still offer sessions, but I’m changing my business name and will be “putting myself out there” in ways that honor my Plutonian need for privacy, and my Uranian and Gemini needs for freedom, especially creative freedom. In January, when the new business name goes into effect, I’ll release some already completed and nearly completed writing projects, including a guided journal for people with Lyme disease. I’ll publish these non-fiction projects under the name “Laura Bruno,” along with my in book-in-process The Metaphysics of Lyme Disease. I also have at least three more non-fiction book ideas that will flow from “Laura Bruno.”
After much consideration, dreams, and other synchronicities, I’ve given myself permission to release any fiction I write under one or more pen names. I’m also allowing myself to create T-shirts and other products under an anonymous or non-Laura-Bruno-related brand name. This shift allows me to release the message in a big way without private Pluto torching the entire enterprise. It also gives my four 10th house planets in Gemini (ruled by trickster Mercury) and my Virgo Ascendant (also ruled by Mercury), a lot of room for fun, change, diversity and play. At some point, I may merge with the pen name(s), or maybe I won’t.
Authors use pen names for a wide variety of reasons, including genre separation, privacy, and branding. I tend to avoid branding and social media like the plague, but I could even see a pen name version of myself maintaining a Facebook, Twitter or Instagram page. It would be kind of like what I always said about weddings, “If I ever had one, I’d get married on Halloween and insist that everyone go in costume. Then ‘the bride’ wouldn’t be the only one playing a role. If we just got it out in the open that everyone’s role playing, I could get into this.” For both marriages, I eloped, but I could have enjoyed a masquerade wedding in the same way, I might not mind social media if it wasn’t “me” doing it.
We shall see. I haven’t written any fiction since the now out of print Schizandra and the Gates of Mu, released in 2009. I’ve already felt a huge influx of creative freedom and joy now that Pluto’s mollified. I look forward to giving Saturn his due and experiencing the powerful flow of leaning into my Capricorn North Node. Like all of us, I just need to do it in ways that honor all of me. If you’ve struggled with the competing factions or unclear goals, you can find your way, too. The whole is greater — and more satisfying — than the sum of its parts.
When you contact me to order a gift certificate, please let me now the name of the person you’re gifting, as well as any details you’d like me to include on the certificate. I’ll create and email you a personalized PDF, which you can email or print out for your loved one.
If you need assistance or grounding to clarify what the heck is going on and how to make the most of it, we can set up a session, either for one of