Inspirations: Change & Re-Invention

Who are you? Are you a brand? Better, are you a celebrity?  Do I know you? Should I? Have you read my site/book/blog/tweet?  Are you almost famous?  Can I friend you?  What do you have for me–me me me? Egad!  We are so noisy.  What has happened to silence, or to coming in second place, or to to not being known? We are so busy shouting no one is listening. How are we ever to become who we need to be if we are pushing to become someone everyone knows, and approves of, or disapproves of?  Better to be notorious than the nice next door neighbor.  Egad indeed. Not only is the pace extreme, demand incessant, distraction heinous, we now push at a before unknown requirement to be seen, even more, to be heard.  It matters not if we have anything of import, quality, even truth to share.  The personal sound bite is the voracious roar du jour. Not all of this can be lamented.  Some of it must serve in its fashion. Perhaps it is a by product of connecting the world? The questions are; how do we maintain a balance?  And, how do we prevent judgment in not being fabulously known, model-thin, and buffed, seriously young, decadantly wealthy? The extremes are silly siren songs which pull the middle line off course. How do we call for correction?  Is this impacting you? How? Where do find yourself reacting? What do you do about it?  Where are you creating balance?  I want to hear about you you, fabulous you. Asana Supta Virasana/Reclining Hero Pose.  This is not a pose for the stiff kneed, bad back, or faint of heart.  There’s a reason it’s named a hero.  Begin on your knees, allowing hips to settle down between the feet.  This is… Read more »

With the  Autumn Equinox shifting the seasons, and other profoundly energizing forces at play, including Mercury’s forward motion, Venus in Scorpio, and a Jupiter/Uranus conjunction, the legitimate  launch of dailybreathjournal is at last lovingly present and accounted for. Like all else that is changing and re-birthing, Daily Breath was developed from a past that seems of another time, though it was only in 2004 that the first ‘Breaths’ appeared.  The website opened in 2007, beautifully executed, as is this incarnation, by DMYStudio. This third rebirth is the present answer to a future that calls us to synthesize past knowledge and learning, to understand the energies and transitions weaving life together.  The ever increasing speed, the demand to produce more with less ask awareness of  energetic forces, visible and invisible.  We are learning to use these links and layers, along with new muscle required for surrendering to the flow. If I were to create a mudra for the website, (Mudra is a physical symbol of hand gestures, evoking emotion, healing, and understanding,) it would be of hands cupped open, lifted to heart level. This cup holds my experience and knowledge, mixed with the gifts of your ideas and responses. Let your cup  fill and then lift it up and let it pour  over you,  for this cup-mudra nourishes and replenishes us with the wit and the wonder of our interconnectedness  as we co-create  DailyBreathJournal;  a seed-pod touching worlds mind’s away. Energetic Forces Asana: Mayurasana/Peacock.  Not to be confused with Pincha Mayurasana/Tail feathers of the Peacock.  This is a down and dirty pose, requiring as much trial, error and re-do as the Pincha, as a good Daily Breath.  What is it about these graceful Birds that demand we grow power and  resilience through arm, legs and back? Ideas anyone? This Mayurasana begins… Read more »

The Universe has given marching orders for ever greater speed, and multi-layers of multi-taskery.  Perhaps because of the speed, I read Jane Austen-ish novels, and watch old movies where slaves are shackled to ship’s oar-benches.  They row to the steady cadence of the drummer’s beat, until orders drop from above, “Ramming speed!”  Slaves soon keel over from the fierce effort, leaving only the hero and a few uber-rowers panting sweat over their oars. You feel sorry for them until thinking, ‘Egad, their life was drab, but simple, We, on the other hand, are shackled to Ipads, Iphones, cellphones, computers, Blackberries, and a new, faster device I don’t know about yet, but is coming soon. Our daily cadence is Ramming Speed. Depite all the communication apps and snaps we’re not communicating with intimacy. We throw words at each other in drive by shootings. We hope something will stick but we can’t hang around long enough to find out. Intimacy requires time to ripen. It suffers from becoming a task.  It agonizes as we prioritize and parce ourselves out to loved ones.  Do I choose the friend who makes me laugh?  The one who is dying and needs long hours of witnessing? Is it the new neighbor who has called four times, and will not call again?  Who do I have time to be with? To be? To become? Because of all this, in honor of all this, the pre-launch of the re-configured website offers new links of relating, perhaps even unusual forms of intimacy. My hope is we row our boats ‘gently down the stream’ shackled together long enough to discover shared thought and wonderful relationship, even if we are at ramming speed. Asana: Camcatasana, better known as ‘Flipping your Dog.’ Enter from Adho Mukha Svanasana-Down Dog, lift R leg up and bend… Read more »

The economic climate, the Astrologic climate, and the emotional climate are singularly hot and climbing. If we are not to repeat the reactionary extremes of the 1930’s; think great depression, rise of Nazism, Fascism, and war, we’d best be formatting better/higher/wider visions. There are many wonderful qualities connected with the energy-framework we are entering, as there were back then: individualism, creative innovation, self-reliance, along with desires for autonomy. It is when they are taken to revolutionary extremes, we suffer. When anything grows too far off-center, suffering prevails. The question is…have we progressed enough since the tumultuous ‘30’s to pull these very similar planetary energies toward higher evolutionary expression? Or, will we fail to fairness, with Self and in the world? Will we fail to hold center ground, in our hearts as well as in our speech? Will we surrender to zealots by lack of spine along with lack of sighted-planning? Can we grow co-ops of compassion, where everyone has equal say/ equal vote, equal responsibility? We can. Question remains, can we do it fast enough to save one another, and the plant & animal kingdoms of Ma-Earth? Calling All Angels (This ‘Breath’ spiked by Michele Finey’s article for Mt. Astrologer, “Uranus In Aries; A spark of Hope for the Future”) Asana: Parivritta Parsvakonasana/Revolved Side Angle Pose. Move into pose from Vira I, R leg forward, knee bent, thigh parallel to floor. Exhale to rotate trunk into R thigh, bringing L arm (armpit) to outside of R knee, placing L hand on floor by R foot, or on a block. Take another breath, extending R arm overhead by ear. Maintain strong, extended back leg. Continue to deepen twist through the breath by extending on inhale, twisting deeper on exhale. Health Notes: Because abdominals are contracted, digestion is improved, as more blood… Read more »

Faced With Decisions of change, which way do you leap? How large is this shift? Which trajectory to choose? Since we are all in the frying pan this summer, we sizzle, for the heat’s on high! It is no longer a question of ‘if,’ only how and when, and where these ‘alternate routes,’ these high jumps of transformation occur. As your ‘Astrologer’ I cannot tell you the right decision to make, rather, I offer ways in which to consider and design best outcomes, like…make time to consider options now, before jumping. Practice take-offs, and if possible, landings. Consider all styles, view the competition, sit still and quiet, listening to instinctual nudges. Because everyone is edgy and nervous with intimations of sea-change, relationships are being pushed and pressured every which way. Can we grow awareness of what the important ones need, and be willing to let others go? “Who do you love and how deeply do they matter.” is a mantra we are returning to time and again, and again. There will be bodies by the roadside. Becoming clear helps prevent regret about those wayside bodies. Rule # 1, Stay focused on essentials. Rule # 2, Remember it’s easier to accept others, rather than change them. (Like we could.) Getting ourselves, particularly judgment, out of the way is paramount to having clear vision of what is, not what we think it/they should be. Because the heat is so high, anger is a BIG issue. ‘Going ballistic’ is sadly becoming more the norm. Rule # 3, Call up unknown wells of empathy to see their POV, rather than become furious with it. We need this energy for other things and people. Spewing and fuming eat enormous amounts of prana/life force. Why waste it? Rule # 4, We have far more fun loving… Read more »

We near the Solstice Standstill, the western hemisphere’s longest day. This was a celebration of life, and its richness, nights when the ancestors called down the Gods through dance and love making, asking for good crops, and plentiful hunts. It remains a celebration when we may connect more vibrantly to the earth and her waters, and because this Solstice lies at the foot of the spring eclipses, doors to the unknown open and close more powerfully; T’is indeed a time of purposeful creation. “Earthly things must be known to be loved. Divine things must be loved to be known.” Blaise Pascal As part of our Sadhana/spiritual Practice, we are learning to synthesize and embrace both these expansive ideas. We are coming to understand that physics embraces the spiritual nature of existence, that quantum mechanics teaches us to have a more encompassing view of mysticism. Brains are wired not only to physical existence but invisisble Universal laws. The non-physical and the physical are one, as all bodies are one, as we and the earth are one, divided only by thought and deed. Through these Solstice nights, let us create that magical ‘ONENESS,’ let us stand-still in true communion with one another, and with Gaia, and call healing to flow through us all. As I finish writing this the following arrives from a dear friend. Read it, do it, rejoice in magical coincidences, and our power to create good out of evil; a perfect incantation for this Solstice. Dr. Masaru Emoto is the scientist from Japan who has done the research and publications about the characteristics of water. Among other things, his research revealed that water physically responds to emotions. Many people have predominantly angry emotions thinking about what is happening in the Gulf. While justified, we may be of greater assistance… Read more »

Seeking ‘en-lightenment?’ Riches? Power? Peace? Love? Health? Consider the sounds/meaning of words uttered without thought. (“I’m so tired.” “I’m afraid I’m sick.” “There’s not enough hours in the day.” “If only I had more money.”) Consider what the ears are taking in, the eyes tracking. The unconscious streams of opinion, bullshit, and nonsense are having their way with us, and as the character Howard Beale shouts in 1973, in the movie Network, “I’m mad as hell and I can’t take it any more!” How many layers of meaning and understanding are attached to sound, to each word? More and more we are assaulted by vibrations of din, and (mis)information. Our core is mentally, emotionally, even psychically changed by this. It’s one thing to sit, swallowing pages of a book, munching pleasurably on each word, entirely different to listen to telephone pitches, TV ads, u-tube, Ipod, endless gameboys, never mind traffic, daily chatting, and kids yelling…the staff of life. Much of this is at high volume, often with dramatic emphasis and emotional rendering. You wonder why we ‘can’t get it together?’ Consider one word, “mom.” There’s the word itself, with its ancient seed sound, ‘Ma,’ and subconscious associations. There are emotional layers mixing past and present which confuses its generic worth. Then there’s context…ie how much of you is involved when hearing, “Mom,” and how much is simply outer contextual layering? What word did you actually hear when you listened to “Mom?” You heard something different than me, and therein lies some of the mystery, confusion, and magic of language. ‘The word’ is a beautiful thing, especially divine speech, or Saraswati. It is our direct link to creativity, and the mastery of much else in life. Our chakra centers are deeply affected by light and sound, especially when used together. In… Read more »