By Amanda Painter

What have your dreams been like lately? I ask because Mars in Sagittarius is barely moving as it prepares to station retrograde this Sunday, April 17, at 8:14 am EDT (12:14 UTC) — and Mars is roughly square dreamy Neptune in Pisces.

Feasting the senses: Breeze, sunlight, sand and the sound of waves on Culebra, Puerto Rico. Photo by Amanda Painter.

I’m pretty sure that my own dream a couple nights ago involving various challenges with a car (Mars symbolizes drive — get it?) is related to Mars stationing.

I also know someone else who had an uncharacteristic (yet pleasant, if somewhat vague and odd) sex dream — sexual desire being another of Mars’ representations. So one way I’m reading Mars square Neptune right now is as a dreamtime nudge of some sort, one possibly related to your spiritual and emotional development.

Of course, your mileage may vary, especially if you don’t tend to remember or work with your nocturnal dreams.

It’s also possible that Mars-Neptune has shown up as some feeling of discouragement or self-doubt. If so, consider this a ‘trial run’ in terms of evaluating those doubts on your own terms (not those of someone else).

Continue reading →

By Amanda Moreno

I’m having one of those weeks where the writing is flowing in poetic juicy reveries, but the content is all far too personal to be published here. Sometimes I push through that, other times I don’t. Today falls into the latter category, so what follows is an attempt to make something cohesive out of random bits — I suppose that is at times what the journey of life feels like as well!

Photo by graywacke/A Landing a Day

Coming up against a deadline, I sat at my altar. I took some deep breaths and asked for guidance.

I pulled a tarot card and was not at all surprised to see the face of Isis staring back at me from the Tantric Dakini Oracle — the card traditionally represented by the High Priestess.

I then reached for the book at my bedside, Robert Powell’s The Sophia Teachings, and opened to a page, where I read these words:

The human soul mirrors the cosmic soul, Sophia. Raising the veil of Sophia or Isis, we gain a glimpse of profound star mysteries. This living wisdom of the stars is inspired by Divine Sophia herself, and will emerge during the course of the New Age. It will entail a living understanding of how the human being reincarnates, how the human being is related to the world of stars, and how, through reincarnation, human karma or destiny is carried over from one life to the next.

Now, let me backtrack a little. One of the phrases we’re constantly uttering in the world of Deep Memory Process — which is the form of past-life regression therapy that I practice — is, “You can’t make this shit up.” I’ve had several of those moments recently.

I taught a class on Mars Retrograde the other night, and in it we did four guided visualization exercises, all of which seemed to be really fruitful for all involved. There were several examples of the ways the archetypes speak through full sensory images, justifying for me the reasons I ask people to tune in to their own knowing before we cover what a transit or symbol or astrological configuration might mean.

For example, I had everyone visualize their chart and then imagine standing on their natal Mars. One person said they felt like they were drowning, like they couldn’t fight their way to the surface, and like their throat was constricted and they were unable to yell for help. Taking a look, we saw their Mars was in the 12th house (the ocean/water) in Gemini (words/communication). Furthermore, it was squaring Saturn (constriction) in the third house (communication). It was a perfect image for the symbolism. You can’t make this shit up.

Almost two years ago I spent five weeks living with my Deep Memory Process teacher. While there, I came across Powell’s book for the first time. I’d never really heard of Sophia, or Divine Wisdom, but it was everywhere I turned, and so when the book came my way I read it. In two sittings. I bawled through the second one. Reading it felt like a homecoming, and so many pieces began to click into place — I wrote about it briefly back then.

Looking at where the asteroid Sophia was transiting in my chart, I saw it was squaring my nodes — something unfinished being revisited. I also saw the asteroid conjunct my ascendant, squaring my Moon and opposing my Sun in my natal chart. This was confirmation for me that the story has a key role in my life. Indeed, it helped me to conceptualize some really important aspects of my own lineage and my place here on Earth.

I’ve worked with Sophia and her stories since I left Florida, but I’ve had this off-and-on, nagging sense that I’m not quite doing enough with it. Then, suddenly this past weekend, I was absolutely filled with the need to revisit Powell’s book, dropped what I was doing, and picked it up again. Later that day I looked at my transits — the asteroid is exactly conjunct my Venus in Pisces, opposing Saturn and squaring Neptune.

It’s always nice to see those synchronicities, even if I don’t spend time delineating what they “mean.” In Powell’s conception of the Sophia mythology, she has three forms that have developed over time to bring different forms of knowing to the Earth — first of power, then of wisdom, and finally of love or the heart. The second stage is represented by Isis. The final stage, which he believes we are heading into, is represented by Aphrodite (Venus) or perhaps the Virgin Mary, and speaks to the primacy of love and the wisdom of the heart.

Seeing the transiting asteroid on my Venus, then, was not surprising for me, nor was seeing the Isis card on my altar after I’d asked for guidance, specifically from Sophia.

Perhaps that’s not quite as hard-hitting a “you can’t make this shit up” example as others I’ve experienced. But these tiny synchronicities do all link together to keep things interesting and to keep me feeling a sense of connection to something greater than myself. How I work with it varies. Sometimes just that confirmation is enough. Today, I saw Isis and instantly thought to use my intuition — what is needed in this moment? I grabbed a fluorite palm stone and placed it over my heart. The relief made me sigh.

Find out what the Mars retrograde will mean for you in Eric’s 2016 Spring Reading. You may pre-order all 12 signs here for less than $40. Includes video readings!

Mars retrograde is bringing all kinds of talk about desire and motivation. One primary desire has risen up far and above all others for me. It’s obvious and it’s a straightforward interpretation of my own astrology — and it makes me want to run and hide because of all of the fear surrounding it.

I’ve felt disempowered and a bit heartsick over it, honestly. Heart dysfunction for a person who bases everything on “grounding it in love” is always a pretty big bummer. When the heart becomes a place of fear it takes away a lot of will and drive, at least for me.

So, there was a reminder in the cards for me today that is perhaps a reminder for you as well: Trust your intuition, or do what you can slowly and gently to learn how. Give yourself a good dose of heart healing — whether that’s by the laying on of the stones (I highly recommend fluorite) or something else. And, if you’re open to it, remember that our souls have been playing these themes out — these desires and these paths — for long periods of time.

We have learned about power. We have learned about the wisdom that comes from the mind and learning to use that power to direct our will. Maybe now it is time to return all of it to the heart, to come from that place of grounded love.

I hear some of my own desires and biases coming through in that. So I’ll be doing what I’ve been advising my clients to do for the next few months: re-examining those desires, particularly in terms of my motivations. Such fun words to write, and such easy advice to give. We’ll see how it all plays out.

By Sarah Taylor

What happens when you feel like you’re reaching a point of bringing something into form — of finally birthing something that, until now, has been conceptual — and you become aware of the fragility of the moment you’re in? That moment when you are in the space between the in-breath of your work and effort, and the out-breath of your finished product, where you can practically smell and touch what you’ve been working towards.

Ace of Swords, Nine of Stones, Two of Swords from the Haindl Tarot deck, created by Hermann Haindl. Click on the image for a larger version.

It hangs before you — your labour, your baby — and it is materialising in front of your very eyes.

What goes through your mind, just then?

The Nine of Stones (Pentacles in the Rider-Waite Smith tarot) is the second-to-last numbered card in the tarot deck. It is the second-to-last card in a sequence that has moved you from inspirational spark (Wands, the first suit), to emotional response (Cups, the second), to intellectual concept (Swords, the third), to the concrete (Stones).

It’s been quite the journey to get you from there, to here. To this moment, when you can look at the card at the centre and see what has coalesced. It’s taken some time, and the road has not been smooth — there’s little doubt about that. Tarot, seen chronologically, is the ideal. Then there is life. Life doubles back on itself; it has unexpected turns and loops; it has ladders, and it has snakes. And not all of the snakes are there simply to stymie your progress. No. Those snakes are there as quality control: their presence tests your mettle, your product, your resolve.

Your Soul is a divine taskmaster that asks you to be as much as you can be. It demands nothing less of you. You haven’t learned the steps to the dance that will free you? It will send you back to dance school. One pirouette forward, three pirouettes back. You want more money? It will show you both its presence, and its absence. You say you want to be a healer? You learn what it is to be a patient.

And you learn what it is to be patient.

It’s your patience that brings you to where you are now, oh beholder-of-the-Nine-of-Stones. Your patience, and your desire to learn balance (the Two of Stones), to take instruction (Three), to understand the limitations of power (Four), to know poverty (Five), to know wealth and what you do with it (Six), to have your faith tested (Seven), and to dedicate yourself over and over again (Eight).

So, here you are at the Nine. Your Nine. And what is going through your mind as you watch what happens when you release your creation into the big wide world?

Actually, what’s going through your mind holds the potential to be entirely supportive of what you’re bringing through — but it asks for two things: first, a faith in your ability to see clearly and to act on that; and, second, a willingness to keep the peace and balance two potentially opposing forces, so that there is safe passage for the Nine to take shape.

Swords are associated with air and the mind. Like both of these, they are fast-moving and quick-changing. The Ace and the Two, however, are two of the most harmonious Swords cards, and it is these that are ‘holding the Nine in place’, both visually and metaphorically.

So imagine, if you will, that you are the guardian of the Nine of Stones (as you are), and you are in the cave of your creation and you must bring these stones to light so that you can share them with the world. What resources are available to you that will be your allies in this task? On your left, you see the Ace — one of the psychic book-ends to what you’ve been writing into existence.

The Ace embodies clear thinking, the truth, a keen ability to get to the crux of what’s going on, to make a decision, to communicate that clearly and keenly. There is nothing spared; that blade cuts clean. Don’t go in ragged because the truth has all it needs to get the job done. You will know it when you wield the Ace because it will be a cool, directed fire in your mind and belly. Your will is in service to your insight. This is your first ally.

Find out what the Mars retrograde will mean for you in Eric’s 2016 Spring Reading. You may pre-order all 12 signs here for less than $40. Includes video readings!

Your second resource is the Two of Swords. Your ability to hold space open between two different points of view. Your ability to negotiate, if only to see a particular part of the process through.

The Two is your desire to choose peace and negotiation above conflict and over-involvement. It is uninvolved. That means that there is a detachment, for sure — and you know you won’t be able to keep that kind of stepping back going for long. But sometimes that detachment serves a purpose for a moment, until clarity (the Ace) comes through.

So step back, rise above, hold the tension, demand a contract knowing it will be short-term only. This is a temporary alliance, but it serves the purpose.

These are two fragile, but paradoxically perfect and robust, means to hold that Nine as it emerges from the birth canal and takes its first breath. And when that happens, reapply that insight (Ace) and the knowledge that your Two of Swords is a finite equilibrium: let that shit go. Your role was to bring this through. Now it is to be custodian and safe-guard.

When it emerges — and you will feel it and know it — you can let go that part of you who has sweated and slogged over its becoming. You can afford to sit back, and breathe. Because it can now breathe on its own. You are no longer obligated to it. But you are perfectly entitled to enjoy it.

Astrology/Elemental correspondences: Ace of Swords (the pure, limitless potential of air), Nine of Stones (Venus in Virgo), Two of Swords (Moon in Libra)

If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article explains how to use the spread.

Eric will have the exciting new Spring Reading for you by April 17. Pre-order today for the best price, and get the lowdown on Mars retrograde. Includes video!

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

With Mars moving toward a retro in Scorpio, 8th House issues are popping up like mushrooms in the dark corners of the garden. Sex, death, and taxes come to mind, and today we’ll look at what’s going on with taxes. No, not the Panama Papers, which is growing into something much larger: perhaps a palm tree to relax under with one’s ill-gotten gains.

Speaking of Mars retrograde, there is a rich tapestry of detail available on how that effects your sign(s) along with other transiting influences, during our Spring Reading pre-sale. You’ll find the information you need to help you swim these choppy spring waters here.

I’ve written before about corporations that establish their headquarters overseas in order to reduce their tax liability. Both Walgreens (drug store chain) and Burger King mulled a merger with foreign companies in 2014, a move known as corporate tax inversion. Walgreens stood to gain somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 billion with this increasingly popular procedure, Burger King around $275 million.

While this process is not illegal, the thought of making such a change to evade taxation strikes most Americans as highly immoral. The public, sensitized by the fraudulent behavior of Wall Street and banking loopholes that had birthed the fledgling populist movement, met the Walgreens and Burger King plans with a squeal of outrage and threats of boycott. Both corporations received such a drubbing that each decided to keep their headquarters stateside.

This week, President Obama threw an e-brake on plans by Pfizer Pharmaceutical to do the same by merging with an Irish company, Allergan (maker of Botox), in order to establish a new corporate entity. The deal would have saved them $160 billion — read that BILLION — in federal taxes.

The mechanics of having sufficient size/holdings to make such a merger is as convoluted as is our tax system, but suffice to say that this is a process that Pfizer has been working toward for years. No surprise, then, that investors became alarmed when Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced a new rule on acquisition, which threw their goal into doubt. In the hours after the announcement, Allergan shares fell 22 percent.

Besides putting a hitch in Pfizer’s giddy-up, this has also put the unwieldy U.S. corporate tax code into the spotlight. Much as Obama’s “You didn’t build that” speech fostered Elizabeth Warren’s further declaration that “There is nobody in this country who got rich on their own. Nobody,” the attention has underscored the need for corporate tax reform and scrutiny of loopholes benefiting the wealthy.

That said, almost a year ago, Elizabeth Warren launched an investigation into the perks and pay-offs received by financial advisers. She was troubled that there was no law protecting consumers who assumed they were receiving financial advice that would benefit them, not their advisers. Turns out the perks received by some of these brokers were, as feared, lavish, while the investors were routinely encouraged to buy into risky annuities that lost them much-needed retirement funds.

This week, the administration put out new rules that require retirement advisers to put their clients’ interests before their own. All of us owe Elizabeth a debt of thanks for her influence, and Obama a thumbs-up for following through. These are important and necessary protections. Now if we could just get the entire corporate community to put their clients’ interests before their own, and approve a Supreme Court that favors real citizens over corporate personhood, we’d be on our way!

If this information was interesting to you, and if you’d like to get a fuller picture of the political, social, psychological, and spiritual influences we deal with on a daily basis, you might consider joining our Core Community. You’ll have access to the whole Planet Waves enchilada, and receive helpful updates and texts. Come join the conversation!