Spring has already sprung here in southern California, and in the evenings now I can here the frogs singing around the nearby pond. There is also a small fish pond right outside my bedroom window, and as the days near sunset I can hear one very loud frog croaking away. He must be very small since I have yet to see him, but he has inspired this Animal Spirits post about the frog.
As amphibians frogs change form, or metamorphose, during their lives from larva or tadpoles breathing through gills and living in water to the adult frog form breathing air with lungs and living on land. Through their transformation frogs learn to navigate the realms of water, air, and earth – emotions, thoughts, and the physical – and this process of change and rebirth also symbolizes spiritual growth and evolution.
Though the frog may seem like a very simple creature, its symbolism is very profound.
The Frog symbolizes:
Transformation & Rebirth
Transitions & Growing through Change
Bringing Dreams, Emotions, & Unconscious Desires into the Conscious Thoughts, Ideas, and Physical Manifestation
When Barbara over at Me, My Magnificent Self asked me to join in on her February Awakening Challenge, I harmoniously said: yes! Two years ago many of us WordPress bloggers contributed in writing posts for her free E-book: A Selection of True AwakeningExperiences,and we are back, working in harmony to put together another collection of our continued, transformative awakening experiences. This fits in nicely with sharing my transformational journey throughButterfly Journal, and here is the prompt for month 9:
By noticing the interconnectedness of all things, we have opened our eyes to the impact all our actions, including our thoughts, emotions, energy, and intentions, can have on everyone and everything we interact with. This wisdom can deepen our awareness even more leading to inner harmony and balance, and to harmonious relationships.
For the ninth month, develop your awareness further to bring harmony into your life. Are there still inner imbalances that you need to work through, or are there disharmonious relationships in your life? Contemplate on allowing patience and compassion to bring harmony to you internally and externally.
One thing that has greatly helped me on my own journey in the past 9+ months has been practicing allowing. I think of it more as the art of allowing because is has in turn allowed me to create amazing things not just recently, but throughout my life. However, since last Spring I have applied the art of allowing to relationships.
Last Spring I took the Caroline Myss Sacred Contracts & Archetype Consulting Course, through which I discovered within myself, within my own psyche, aspects or archetypes of myself that I was denying or un-allowing to develop and express because they were archetypes I associated with some close relations. Because they more often expressed the shadow aspects of these archetypes, I disliked being around these relations, which only made me feel like interactions with them were unharmonious.
As I began to work on embracing our common archetypes, 1) I had to allow those parts of me (light and shadow) their deserved acknowledgement and empowerment, 2) I had to see that my relations, even though they may normally express the shadow aspects of these archetypes, do have the light aspect as well, 3) I needed to awaken, “see”, and acknowledge when they express those light attributes, and 4) if I allow those light aspects to be expressed within myself, they would have the opportunity to match my vibration and express their light attributes instead of the shadow ones.
This is basically the Law of Attraction. If I am aware of my state of being and allow myself to be and express the light (aka focus on the positive) in contrast to and with acknowledgement of the shadow, others will only interact with me if they match that vibration of harmony. Through my own light of awareness, I help others literally “lighten up!” If they are in a low vibration state, and I do not match them, which would create a disharmonious interaction, we either do not meet to interact or it just dissolves.
Awakening to the awareness that we are all interconnected and truly the creators of our realities opens endless doors of harmonious creation and manifestation. We become ever more aware of how we affect our own lives as well as how our attitude, thoughts, intentions, and actions can have an impact on everyone and everything around us and beyond.
During this 12 session interactive teleconference workshop, we will journey through Butterfly Journal together:
Discussing the journal prompts and journal entry examples
Brainstorming, outlining, and writing down key words of inspiration
Sharing (optional) our writing
Discussing personal insights, revelations, & challenges
Posing questions to the group & self-inquiry
What will you gain and benefit from taking this workshop and going on this transformational journey?
Skills in self-reflection
Awareness and acknowledgment of your shadow side
Healing of old and newer emotional and psychological wounds
A clearer view and perception of yourself, your actions, and how they affect others
A greater understanding and compassion for yourself, others, and the planet
Classes will be held every Wednesday evening from 6:00pm to 7:30pm Pacific time from February 17th through May 4th
Cost is $60.oo (only $5.oo per class!) – Sign-ups are now closed.
Once purchased, I will send you a confirmation email and the morning of the each session, I will send you the link, call in number, and access code to call into the teleconference sessions.
* If you are outside the US, long distance charges on your phone may apply depending on your phone and plan.
Sessions will be recorded and archived, so if you miss one or want to go back and review, you can!
I tucked the first announcement for this teleconference workshop in my last Butterfly Journal post, but feel it is due its own post so those searching for it can easily find it. I hope you join us on journeying through Butterfly Journaltogether!
During this 12 session interactive teleconference workshop, we will journey through Butterfly Journal together:
Discussing the journal prompts and journal entry examples
Brainstorming, outlining, and writing down key words of inspiration
Sharing (optional) our writing
Discussing personal insights, revelations, & challenges
Posing questions to the group & self-inquiry
What will you gain and benefit from taking this workshop and going on this transformational journey?
Skills in self-reflection
Awareness and acknowledgment of your shadow side
Healing of old and newer emotional and psychological wounds
A clearer view and perception of yourself, your actions, and how they affect others
A greater understanding and compassion for yourself, others, and the planet
Classes will be held every Wednesday evening from 6:00pm to 7:30pm Pacific time from February 17th through May 4th
Cost is $60.oo (only $5.oo per class!) -Sign-ups are now closed.
Once purchased, I will send you a confirmation email and the morning of the each session, I will send you the link, call in number, and access code to call into the teleconference sessions.
* If you are outside the US, long distance charges on your phone may apply depending on your phone and plan.
Sessions will be recorded and archived, so if you miss one or want to go back and review, you can!
In Entry 1 for the eighth month of Butterfly JournalI discussed empathy, compassion, the differences between the two, and how both connect us to in this interconnected web of existence. Since posting that post, I have been both observing and contemplating on how much expansion I have experienced just in the past couple of months:
I’ve been expanding my personal yoga practice once again to an almost daily practice.
Locally I have been expanding my connections – meeting new people and regularly exploring new locations.
And without even trying and with people just appearing to me, I have begun to attract and build a local client base.
I definitely have been “bursting out of the bonds of the cocoon,” as this month’s journal prompt states!
As many of you know, two months ago I took a big leap of faith and stepped into the unknown like the Fool of the Tarot, and moved to a new place where I knew no one. I had completed a cycle of ancestral, shamanic, and healing work in the family home, and the signs were all there that it was now my time – time to complete the move I began three years prior and time to catch up with myself. (You can explore some of the early Butterfly Journal posts for the background on this here.)
And as I stepped into this magnificent void of unknowing and emptiness where everything and anything is possible based upon my openness and upon my knowing that all the seeds of intentions that I had planted over the past few years would now sprout and grow and expand into a beautiful garden, I knew that I, myself as an individual, and my work (which is what I do and a part of me) would ride this growing flow of momentum of expansion. Faith and allowing are powerful, powerful means of manifestation!
Jupiter, the planet of expansion, turned retrograde this month. During his retrograde phase it is an excellent time to revisit and return to things from the past or things put on hold that will now be able to better grow and expand. With this energy I am returning to teaching and facilitating workshops and webinars! The first one is a writing and journaling workshop:
During this 12 session interactive teleconference workshop, we will journey through Butterfly Journal together:
Discussing the journal prompts and journal entry examples
Brainstorming, outlining, and writing down key words of inspiration
Sharing (optional) our writing
Discussing personal insights, revelations, & challenges
Posing questions to the group & self-inquiry
What will you gain and benefit from taking this workshop and going on this transformational journey?
Skills in self-reflection
Awareness and acknowledgment of your shadow side
Healing of old and newer emotional and psychological wounds
A clearer view and perception of yourself, your actions, and how they affect others
A greater understanding and compassion for yourself, others, and the planet
Classes will be held every Wednesday evening from 6:00pm to 7:30pm Pacific time from February 17th through May 4th
Cost is $60.oo (only $5.oo per class!) – Sign-ups are now closed.
Once purchased, I will send you a confirmation email and the morning of the each session, I will send you the link, call in number, and access code to call into the teleconference sessions.
* If you are outside the US, long distance charges on your phone may apply depending on your phone and plan.
Sessions will be recorded and archived, so if you miss one or want to go back and review, you can!
During a Chakra Balancing & Healing Mini-Session earlier this week, an octopus appeared. I often receive shamanic visions while doing any type of energy healing session, whether it is Chakra Balancing, Reiki, or other forms of energy healing (see post: Five Types of Energy Work for Holistic Health), and though that octopus vision was a specific message for that client, it has inspired me to write up this animal spirits post about the octopus.
Octopus symbolism is deep and complex. As an intelligent creature of the deep ocean waters, the octopus represents many feminine attributes: intuition, emotions, the psyche, the unconscious, and the ability to move through the darkness – the mysterious, occult, and our shadows.
The octopus is also a master of disguise and can change shape and color. This shapeshifting ability gives them protection, flexibility, agility, and adaptability. However their defenses don’t stop here. They also eject thick, black ink to create a mask or veil to swiftly escape any danger into the deep dark waters.
The spiral shapes that the octopus’ legs curl into symbolize the spiral of the expanding universe, of our expanding consciousness, of the creation continuum, of the cycles of time, and of the fractal patterns of the universe.
The Octopus Symbolizes:
Intelligence & Knowledge of the Esoteric
Intuition, Emotions, & Our Shadows
The Ability to Hide & Shape-shift
Interconnectedness to the Universe, Consciousness, & Time
If you are interested in a personal in-depth Tarot, Astrology, Life Coaching, Energy Healing, or Archetype Consultation session via Skype/FaceTime, Phone, E-mail, or private YouTube video please click here to go to my business website.
Some of you know I offer distance Reiki Healing sessions. Now I’ve decided to also offer Chakra Balancing 15 minute Mini-Sessions for those who are new to distance healing and energy work or for those who want to just try it out.
These Mini-Sessions are being offered at only $20! Once purchased, I will email you to let you know when I will be doing your chakra balancing healing session, usually within 24-48 hours. Afterwards I will also email you a short report with my observations and any suggestions for you for further healing. Click here to purchase!
For information on the full length Distance Reiki Healing Sessions, please click “Reiki” in the menu bar at the top of my business site here!
As compassion for ourselves, others, and the planet develops and grows, we begin to feel ourselves expand. Just by our decision to embark upon this journey of spiritual transformation, we took the first steps to leave the state of contraction and selfishness behind. By now we are growing and expanding so much that we are bursting out of the bonds of the cocoon.
For the eighth month, stretch your wings! That is, let your mind, heart, and soul reach out into the world. Focus on feeling the different ways in which you are connected to everything, both near and far. Notice the interconnectedness of all things.
Before starting thisentry, I felt compelled to go back and read what I wrote for the eighth month entry during my last journey through Butterfly Journal, which I wouldn’t normally do. Following my inner guidance revealed a journal post that fits synchronistically with quite a few messages I’ve had to convey during recent astrology readings – how to ground oneself and filter out what empaths pick up to avoid empathic overload. Here is that post re-visited and expanded:
Firstly let’s look at: what is empathy, and what is compassion?
The word “empathy” comes from the Ancient Greek ἐμπάθεια (empatheia), meaning: in or at (en>em) feeling, suffering, or passion (patheia). Having empathy is feeling or sensing another person’s emotions in some way. Most often this manifests emotionally to the empath, but it can also come through as thoughts, as visual impressions, and even as physical signs or symptoms. For an example of physical empathy: if I am regularly around or must engage with someone who is very insecure, anxious, and sneaky and thus keeps secrets and tells many lies (someone who lacks integrity), I tend to get skin rashes (the integrity of my skin breaks down). In such cases, my body “feels” another’s emotional state. Most of the time though I feel other people’s emotions and the strong emotional imprints they may leave behind non-physically.
We all are capable of empathy. Some of you may be very empathic and not know it. You may just think you are “sensitive,” which you are. You are sensitive, that is highly empathic, to picking up others’ emotional states, but you may not be aware that they are not yours. If you feel this is you, pause each time you feel flooded with emotions and ask yourself if you have a reason for feeling this way. If so, address that issue. If not, then you are likely picking up someone else’s feelings, and knowing this you can help them if you can or at least let those feelings go.
When we are able to differentiate between our own emotions and others’ emotions, when we have empathic understanding of what others are feeling, we can then find compassion for their suffering. Compassion comes from the Latin verb compatior, compati, compassus sum, meaning to suffer or feel (pati-, pass-) with (cum>com). Empathy is the sensing, the intuitive “picking up” of emotions and suffering of others, and compassion is when we ourselves feel the desire to help others in understanding or dealing with their suffering.
It is through both empathy and compassion that we learn, or remember, that we are truly all connected and interconnected. It is this awakening and awareness that clears the way for each of us to expand.
However, challenges can arise as we expand, as we open ourselves to empathically pick up on others’ emotions and states of being, and as we extend compassion towards others and in turn ourselves (as we learn to face, accept, and understand our own pains and suffering). But how do we face the challenges of empathic overload? The protective and instinctual thing most of us would do is shut down, withdraw, or become emotionally numb. However, this leads to contraction, which inhibits our spiritual growth and often makes us feel alone in the world.
In order to be open and expand without becoming overloaded by what we pick up empathically and without allowing ourselves to be so open that we become drained by others, firstly we need to be grounded. When grounded, we are centered in our Be-ing, and it is easier to differentiate between our own emotions and others. Being grounded helps to turn the focus and awareness within, from the heart and soul, instead of the ego/mind’s over-thinking and illusions of the external circumstances. When grounded we can observe both ourselves and others with clarity and compassion.
There are many ways in which we can ground ourselves. Here is a list of some practices that help us stay grounded and bring us back to center while at the same time bringing to our awareness the interconnectedness of all. These are also good for our health and spiritual growth:
Breathe! Stop for a few minutes to take some deep breaths when feeling overloaded with emotions or overwhelmed by others’ emotions. Breathe deeply or do some Pranayama practices.
Meditate or just sit quietly, observing and releasing the thoughts of the mind.
Do some gentle moving meditation such as walking, tai chi, or yin yoga.
Engage in intense exercise to help burn off and release extra steam so it’s easier to ground.
Visualize roots coming from your feet growing into and connecting to the nourishing support of Gaia, Mother Earth.
Do devotional practices, such as chanting Mantras, prayer, or reading sacred texts.
Physically connect to the earth: walk barefoot on the earth or beach, garden, or be in nature.
Staying well-hydrated also helps. Water, like earth, is a feminine element, and they help us stay connected to our divine-feminine within (men and women) which is intuitive, empathic, and compassionate.
When in the midst of an empathic overload moment with others, we may not be able to stop and walk away to do some grounding, but remember that we can always breathe. Our breath connects us to the universe, and every other human, animal, and plant on the planet. It both clears the clutter of the mind and opens the heart to connect to all with compassion. Like the butterfly free from the contracted confines of the cocoon, open up, stretch, and fill your wings with breath!
If you are interested in journeying through Butterfly Journal in conjunction with life coaching sessions please click here to visit my business site and click the “Life Coaching” tab at the top.
If you are interested in embarking on your own journey of transformation, you can purchase Butterfly Journal from Amazon (and international stores), or Barnes & Noble.
Happy New Year everyone! The year 2016 is here! I’ve been contemplating the numerology for this year for me personally, but I’d like to share some of the general numerology symbolism of the year 2016, which adds up to the number nine, and what it symbolizes or represents in astrology and tarot.
In astrology the 9th house (of 12) is considered the most auspicious, or luckiest, house, as is the 9th sign (of 12) of the zodiac, Sagittarius. These both symbolize spirituality, religion, philosophy, foreign or distant travel, higher (University or spiritual) education, and publication. Jupiter is the planet that rules Sagittarius (whichever house number this is in your chart) and is the natural 9th house ruler. Jupiter represents expansion, growth, fortune, and good things coming in.
The number nine itself is a number of completion, abundance, auspiciousness, harvesting, and gratitude. When it comes up in the tarot it can also symbolize amplification beyond the self and adding to others’ vibrations. However, in the tarot there is something else that stands out about the number nine cards – they all contain solitary figures:
Let’s begin with the major arcana number nine, The Hermit. The Hermit card is about following or seeking one’s spiritual path and inner light or guidance, and trusting and having faith in that guidance. This path must be undertaken by one’s Self by oneself. It does not mean you must withdraw completely from society, but it does require some time spent alone in meditation, contemplation, self study, etc.
The nine of wands is the minor arcana card of strength. This lone figure has withstood a lot, and he has healed most of his wounds. He did it alone through his own strength – physical, mental, emotional, and/or spiritual strength – and has grown and become stronger from the experience.
The nine of swords is called the card of cruelty. It shows a woman awake at night, distraught, stressed, worried, and/or ill. She is alone in the darkness, possibly feeling hurt emotionally by others or by her own dark shadows. She may be afraid of the dreams or nightmares she has been having due to all this, but it is in the darkness of her own psyche where she will find the answers to her healing.
The nine of pentacles is the card of gain. It shows an independent, well-to-do woman in her garden with a falcon. Sometimes I call this card the lady of the manor card. She has gained greatly through her own effort and seems self-sufficient and financially independent.
The nine of cups is the card of happiness and is also called the wish card. Everyone loves when this card comes up in a reading! But notice how the man, though he has an abundance of cups (money, goods, material things), he sits alone, as if there is no one to share his wish having come true with. He is happy, yet solitary in his happiness.
In this numerological year number nine, remember to have gratitude and show appreciation to the Universe, others, but also to yourself for all you have accomplished, overcome, and experienced up to now. 2016 calls for many of us to bring the old to completion, but in that process to learn about ourselves and our Selves through going within, meditation, independent inner (and outer) work, and by facing our own shadows and fears. This is a spiritual year, and may we all grow from the inside out!
If you are interested in a personal in-depth Tarot, Astrology, Life Coaching, or Archetype Consultation session via Skype/FaceTime, Phone, E-mail, or private YouTube video please click here to go to my business website.
Butterfly Journal, month 7 prompt: We’ve all grown over the past half-year. We’ve come to understand ourselves better by looking deep within. From this depth of understanding, we can now begin to grow outwards into our personal environment and into the global environment. We have learned from our growth process the challenges, pains, and struggles that others might also be suffering with. Our empathic understanding of others’ suffering opens our hearts to compassion.
For the seventh month, meditate on opening up your heart and look for ways, in your interactions with others or with how you live your life, where you can bring in compassion and understanding. How does that affect or change things? It’s time to start breaking out of the cocoon and connect on a deeper level to the world.
Since I began this second journey through Butterfly Journalsix months ago to return into the cocoon, my life has changed a lot. I returned to travel deeper into the waters of my psyche and unconscious and hence to continue healing childhood, ancestral, and other/past life wounds, and to reflect back upon my experience here to gain a deeper understanding from my own experience that I can use to help others on their journeys. This month, synchronistically with this month’s journal prompt, I broke open the cocoon and moved out of the family home after three very intense years of inner, spiritual, healing, and metaphysical work on so many levels.
Whenever I felt overwhelmed, frustrated, irritated, or even trapped during the experience and process of the past three years (which, as I see now, was an intensification and zeroing in on the wounds or the deep healing my psyche – personal, familial, and ancestral – was screaming for), I would try to embrace the way of the bodhisattva and find compassion and understanding for others, physical and spirit, to whom I was directing those emotions. They were only doing what they knew how to do. These actions, behaviors, and energies were their own pain and wounds crying out for help, and by me releasing those limiting emotions and instead by understanding their pain through compassion, I released some of my own. In Tibetan Buddhist Medicine, compassion and love is the antidote to all pain and suffering.
It hasn’t even been three weeks since I moved, yet in this short span of time in a fresh nature environment, I have also developed greater compassion for myself, for the “Julie” identity that at times I had also been frustrated with. This compassion for myself has unexpectedly brought about a different layer of healing, one that feels very freeing. I seem to be easily releasing and cleansing things, mentally, emotionally, and physically. I feel lighter, and I feel free to expand my wings and reach out more to others around the world with love and compassion.
What if I should discover that the poorest of the beggars and the most impudent of offenders are all within me; and that I stand in need of the alms of my own kindness. That I myself am the enemy who must be loved. – Carl Jung
From Shantideva’s, Bodhicharyavatara (The Way of the Bodhisattva):
May beings everywhere who suffer
Torment in their minds and bodies
Have, by virtue of my merit,
Joy and happiness in boundless measure.
As long as they may linger in samsara,
May their joy be undiminished;
May they taste of unsurpassed beatitude
In constant and unbroken continuity…
May those caught in the freezing ice be warmed,
And from great clouds of Bodhisattvas
Torrents rain in boundless streams
To cool those burning in infernal fires…
And may the stooping animals be freed
From fear of being preyed upon,
And may the famished spirits have such joy
As those who dwell in [heaven]…
May those who go in dread have no more fear.
May captives be unchained and set free.
And may the weak receive their strength.
May living beings help each other in kindness.
If you are interested in journeying through Butterfly Journal in conjunction with life coaching sessions please click here to visit my business site and click the “Life Coaching” tab at the top.
If you are interested in embarking on your own journey of transformation, you can purchase Butterfly Journal from Amazon (and international stores), or Barnes & Noble.
As some of you may have noticed, I recently moved down the coast from San Francisco to Santa Barbara, which lies sandwiched between the ocean and the mountains of a national forest. My new home is only a short drive to the beach, but it is within walking distance of the trails, which my two Alaskan Malamutes absolutely love! It’s also an ideal quiet location for me for what I wish to accomplish in the next few months: to spend time, outside of doing my Astrology, Tarot, and Life Coaching sessions, to focus without much distraction on writing my books and developing my own inner growth and awareness process.
I rise early in the morning – before sunrise this time of year – and need to wear a headlamp to take the pups on their morning trail walk. On our first morning walk here I saw from a distance two very large glowing green eyes silently watching us from behind some bushes. As we got closer, I saw that it was a bobcat. She watched us, and I watched her magnificent green eyes illuminating the way for us.
Not the actual eyes I saw, but I found this pic to give you an idea. Click for photo source.
The pups did not give her the slightest notice. She was not a concern for them, nor was she a concern for me. I knew she had appeared out of the darkness to affirm I had made the right move and was in the right place for my present life goals.
The Bobcat symbolizes:
Solitude & Patience
Awareness & Clear Vision in Darkness (literally and figuratively)
Seeing through Illusions & Within Ourselves/Our Shadows
Spring has already sprung here in southern California, and in the evenings now I can here the frogs singing around the nearby pond. There is also a small fish pond right outside my bedroom window, and as the days near sunset I can hear one very loud frog croaking away. He must be very small since I have yet to see him, but he has inspired this Animal Spirits post about the frog.
Through the Peacock's Eyes 