Spiritual Business

Triumph

I was reading a fascinating post at Brazen Careerist about Triumph and what it means to use. Not everything is Oscars and tickertape parades. For us small beings in the world, many have obstacles that require more than Ganesh to help us get a leg up.

My sister is facing a protracted and nasty marriage separation. Devastating after she ha been through so much, not only has she the day to day details to deal with but she is living with the fear of an uncertain future and the realisation that the man she was married to for many years is not the man she thought.

Her triumph is not dropping the balls of her life and getting up each morning. Making her children breakfast and getting them off to school. No parades for her yet she bloody deserves one.

For me it is also getting out of bed when the clouds threaten to suffocate me. When I had post natal depression, my lovely Quack told me to make my bed each day. That way when I went went to bed at the end of the day, I knew I had done something, even so small as making the bed. It worked, it was personal triumph.

I find lists help when things are foggy. What is it I shall do today? Sometimes I do all of them and and suffer for doing to much but then I do only one on the list and instead of berating myself I celebrate I did one of the tasks. One is better than none.

We try to tackle the hurdles that life puts before us. That in itself is a triumph. Each one of us has a list of these hurdles. Know your list. Celebrate your magic and remember you can do anything.

You are amazing.

This is your moment

I love the Oscars. I love any awards ceremony, except a sporting award cermony. Yawn.com.

I also love weddings. I am the girl who beeps my horn or waves at the bridal car going past. I remember how many people did that on my wedding day and how much I loved it.

I think brides are magical, like new babies and spring.

Not that I am getting all creepy and saying that everyone should be married but when the intention is right and the mood is love then weddings are wonderful.

I cry when people get what they want; radio competitions, game shows and an Oscar. I cried when Ms Sandra Bullock won this year. I like to think I know talent. I often pick the winners on Idol at the beginning of the show. I knew Nicole Richie was beautiful underneath the layer of skank she was rockin' and I knew Melissa George had a stealth bomber of ambition in her backpack when she left Summer Bay for L.A.

Sandra had it and I knew it. I knew it from Speed, the leaden Hope Floats and the even worse Miss Congeniality 2. I banged her drum for a long time and felt almost proud as I did my book edits and watched the awards.

Then I wept again for the gracious Kathryn Bigelow, who didn't mention her gender once during her speech but still looked overwhelmed by the gravity of the moment.

We all have our 15 minutes, the choice we have is with what we do with them.

Choose wisely.

(For the record - Sandra is a Leo, with a Moon and Ascendant in Aquarius.)

This too shall pass

Yes we can!

Onwards with the Twelve Principles of the Golden Dawn and this week's gem is inspiring for the waning moon.

Face problems as creative challenges, allowing for paradox, to create "uniquely fitting situations."

Challenges are designed to overcome, problems are things we would wish would go away.

When I think about this as I write, I wonder if there are actually any problems at all in day to day life. They are all challenges in their own way and there are ingenious ways to tackle them.

A challenge is a spiritual summoning to find the key to the locked door in front of you. To find the action to resolve the challenge is the way to go, to lie down and say you have no answers is being swallowed by the problem.

Hey, I ain't perfect, plenty of times in my own life I have laid in the centre of the spiritual path and waited for the truck to run over me. My ability to face challenges is directly related to my level of emotional, physical and spiritual strength. The higher my immune systems, the better I do.

I also think it is fascinating that the answers to lifes challenges can come from unusual sources or messangers. Strangers on the street with a few words or signs around me lift me to the higher place or give me the ephiphany I desire.

Stay open, I guess is my only advice. Stay open and don't limit the solution in your mind.

Happy Tuesday!

Virgo Moon

A full moon in Virgo at 3.39am. What a doozy, focusing on health, organisation and trying new things to improve our lives. I plan on editing my manuscript, hopefully with the light of the Virgo moon highlighting all my typos. (Anyone who read my blog will be familiar with my terrible typos.)

A hideous weekend with single parenting of two sick children, Gandalf on the other side of the country and devestating news for a dear friend of mine. Death it seems is inevitable and not to be trifled with, in any form.

Menwhile, after a full day of too many things to do yesterday, I am happily clad in my mental pajamas (read tracksuit) and am planning to do as little as possible today.

The Good Doctor has mastered the art of mental defragging. She has days where she does whatever she wants to do. if she wants to read, she does, play the piano, cooks something, gardens: whatever her mind tells her to move to next, she does, even if that means an entire day in bed. "Let it be." she says. I admire that. I am hoping to be able to capture this art and make it my own. Hard with changelings but they are old enough to be able to move with me or by themselves, hopefully.

Already this year, so much bad news, the Year of the Tiger is always destabilising to the foundations of the world and I read many predictions of natural disasters on Chinese astrology blogs a few weeks ago. So far Haiti and now Chile, with Tsumani warnings for the Pacific Ocean areas. What next I wonder?

While trawling the internet for god news, the best I could come up with was a UK man who has finally been cured of hiccups after three years. I am sure this is the greatest news for him and his loved ones who no doubt have borne his malady along with him. 

Perhaps we can see these natural disaters as the worlds hiccups, reminding us we are smaller than we believe. I don't know, I am clutching at straws here, at a loss to explain so much pain for so many people on the planet.

So the good news in my own life?

• White lilies on my sideboard in my lovely vessel from the Artisan Taurus and the Italian Crab
• Good news on a job, that I discovered yesterday
• Opportunity with a new writing project
• The promise to catch up with an old and dear friend this week
• A new vehicle to drive through life, picking it up tomorrow
• Big love in my life.

Thats the best I can do, not bad, small things but still nice things to focus on.

Dark moon today peeps, lay low and get ready for a rockin' March. Stay tuned for my astrology which will be up later today.

Dear Unknowns

I awoke to lovely emails from people in far away lands about my book, asking advice and commenting on my blog. A perfectly perfect way to awake. Which then got me thinking that those nearest to me who I am sure don't read my blog. Maybe I am such an open book that they feel they don't have to, or that this is a different part of me, or....

I saw a secret on Post a Secret recently where a person said, "It pisses me off that my family don't read my blog." I understand. I don't think my mother ever reads it, instead she surfs travels sites and Amazon for new book releases. My sister has never commented so I guess she has never reads it. She never commented once on my book, which had sections about her in it, funny.

Occasionally Blessed Seraph chimes in when time permits with her schedule and Mrs Underhill gives me the cyber nod, and I back to her, to each others blogs, which is nice and supportive.

I know I sound like a shrew but really, when those nearest to you dont say a word about your writing, when you put up your soul online and get nadda in return, it has irked me.

However on the positive side, I did make a close friend out of a regular reader of my blog, Fishgirl. A truer friend I could never have asked for. She is a gem and I hold her in my hand of 5 or so girls whom I would call when I was locked up and needed bail.

When I wrote my book, I don't think many people close to me read it. In fact, I know they didn't. It was actuallly funny to see people skirting the issue.

So this is for the unknowns. Thanks for reading. I am blessed.

Set 'em up!

Goal setting can be a pain in the arse. All that thinking about what you want for the future when just getting to the end of the day without food on your top is an achievement.

I like my solutions short and sharp and this is why this site here is perfect. A pocket sized goal setting chart. Bloody brilliant. Download away my friends.

The only downside is that you need a degree in industrial engineering to fold the flipping thing. This is not one of my goals, the industrial degree thing but I have listed the goals straight of the top of my head and popped them into my wallet.

No deep thinking, just topline and from the heart.

I feel more on purpose than ever.

Pocket sized plans for huge goals.

Me likey.

Fingers in my pie

We have recently been through a heinous astro transit called, the Fingers of God. It is rare as hen's teeth and for that we should be grateful, as I understand.

The old Fingers of God grabbed us all around the throat or wherever our Mars and Jupiter is in our chart and pushed so hard, we thought we might even stop breathing from the pressure, but coming out the other side, we are supposed to be blessed or something like that.

Anyway, last week was a doozy for many people in my life, and yes, I too, felt the fingers of God kneeding my Mars and Jupiter, in all sorts of uncomfortable ways.

I don't really know if any of this is true but I do think it was interesting that so much merde went down for so many people during this astro phase. But then again, I guess we can find meaning in anything if we want to look hard enough.

I am planning on learning to read coffee cups, as my new ritual includes a home made coffee everyday, thanks to my dear Fishgirl. Read here on a how to article.

It's time I added a new string to my bow. The Grecian Goddess reads coffee cups. Its inherited that knowledge, all I inherited was a decent Spaghetti Bolognese sauce recipe.

Later.

Oversharers Anonymous

At the start of each week I am exploring each point on the The Twelve Principles from The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

This week I bring you the seventh point - Make choices: both affirm and set boundaries.

Boundaries protect us. From vinegary friends with their snide asides, overbearing mothers or mother-in-laws and needy staff or coworkers.

i recently had a fascinating conversation with the female head of a major international company who told me about a staff member who constantly shared her stories at work about her hideous childhood. Sad, sure. The right forum? Nope.

She and I pondered over a wine, as to whether the woeful childhood stories were floated before her because she was a woman, ergo, she must be more empathetic. Instead she told me she found herself withdrawing more from this staff member. She felt bad when she realised it but knew it was too late to react any other way. Knowing the whole story of this persons life made her feel too close, the boundaries were crossed and she wanted to retreat like hell!

Who hasn't had that? I have a friend who hates when people who launch into immediate intimacy in a social setting, yet she works in a field where she must elicit secrets from people in order to save them from themselves. These are the boundaries she sets in her personal life. A brief introduction and exchange of names does not give you permission to tell me about your cysts or constipation, she claims, and I agree.

We all have our own set of boundaries, the trick is to not then become uncaring or too distant from those you love and run like hell from the ones who make you feel like shit.

Its not that I don't care, it's just that some things are meant to be shared with certain people and certain people share too much.

Set youself some boundaries and protect yourself and others. Make the choice and if you are unsure if you are an oversharer or not, then head here. If you are on the list, then it's time to rethink your sharing.

Dust, dirt and dialogue

Working from home can be problematic. The washing leers at me and I am sure the dust in the corners of the rooms could insulate a small cottage but I wave my hand at it, telling it to shut the hell up and let me be. 'Can't you see I'm working?'

I have become neater as I have grown older. I used to be the messiest person in Christendom. When I was at University, I woke one night certain the mess around my bed was going to fall ontop of me and I would be smothered by ballet shoes and music.

Things changed when I had the Scorpio Daughter and I had to get some sort of a routine happening. I finally kicked into gear when I made a friend whose daughter was the same age and this mother was, argueably, the neatest person in the world.

Her house had an air of calm about it that I hadn't known before and I would visit her just so I could get high off her the fumes of her cleaning products. This hit was enough for me to go home and try clean my own house,  attempting to emulate her dust free existence where the toys crates were labeled and her daughters china tea set was complete without a crack. Sadly my house was never as spick and span as hers, no matter what products I used.

In hindsight she was a little too neat and used antibacterial wipes and spray on everything. As a result, her child was always sick. "Not being exposed to enough germs." my ex-nurse mother told me gravely." A little dirt is good for you."

However, I did keep the toy labeling and looking after them regime she used, teaching my children that toys need to be looked after and to respect them. The same for books. I don't think my changelings ever ripped or drew on a book and god knows we have shelves of them in their rooms. "Books are our friends", I used to say and I would turn the page carefully and as they began to grow and read independently, I saw them turn the page just as I used to when I read to them. With love.

So I keep repeating my mothers mantra, "A little dirt is good for you, a little dirt is good for you." It won't clean my house but it does ease my mind.

Working from home is dirty work.

Later.