Straight from the Altar

Posted by Amanda Moreno

Photo by graywacke/A Landing a Day

Pulling a tarot card, Amanda Moreno sees the face of Isis (traditionally represented by the High Priestess). Weaving together insights from Robert Powell’s The Sophia Teachings and the guided visualizations from her recent Mars retrograde class, Amanda offers a reminder about intuition and heart healing.

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

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!

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.

Posted in Columnist on | 8 comments
Amanda Moreno

About Amanda Moreno

Amanda is an astrologer, soul worker and paradigm buster based in Seattle. Her adventures in these forms of ‘practical woo’ are geared towards helping people to heal themselves and the world. She can be found in the virtual world at www.aquarianspirals.com.

8 thoughts on “Straight from the Altar

  1. DivaCarla Sanders

    Amanda, your altar has synchronicity with my altar. Thank you. The high priestess showed up for me two ways yesterday, and your article today makes three. And I had to look up Sophia in my natal chart. There she sits smack on my 3rd house cusp in Cap, exact opposite Uranus, which is conjunct Jupiter, in Cancer. I don’t know what it means, so I looked at the transits for more info. The Moon is crossing over my Jupiter and Uranus opposite Sophia as I write this, Vesta and Mercury are bearing down on my natal Nessus, and Sophia is conjunct liminal Ceres in the last degree of Pisces, transiting my natal Psyche (the wound that we believe we can’t heal, Eric has said). Tomorrow I fly out to Tucson for a Vision Quest, with intention to visit Nessus, Psyche, and Sophia in liminal space, dancing on Ceres for 4 days. My work is laid out for me in the chart. Couldn’t be clearer. Thank you for illuminating my altar just before Vision Quest. Your random bits are not random at all.

    1. Amanda MorenoAmanda Moreno Post author

      You’re welcome! I always try to just trust that whatever gets plopped out here is in the best interests of whoever reads. Enjoy (?) your vision quest. Tucson is my motherland and I’ll be there myself in just a few weeks. :)

  2. Barbara Koehler

    Hello Amanda, I know what you mean about the synchronicity effect (“even if I don’t spend time delineating the meaning”) as it lets me know I’m on track with something greater, much greater than myself. Thank you for sharing.

    Like DivaCarla, I will also look up where asteroid Sophia is in my natal chart today. I’ve been seeing my natal Isis play key roles in events for a couple of years though. Right now (just checked) transiting Isis is trine my natal Sun and square my natal Moon!

    This is all very interesting stuff you have written and I’m sure I will be digging further into Sophia’s mythology very soon.
    be

    1. Amanda MorenoAmanda Moreno Post author

      Thanks for the nudge for me to re-look at Isis in my chart as well. Her transiting body isn’t lighting too much up, but the natal placement is under a lot of pressure right now — as is Psyche. I once cast the chart for the “discovery” of the Sophia Asteroid — October 4, 1885 in Vienna. I can’t recall a ton about the chart, and am on my way out the door, but I do remember that the South Node of the Chart is at 25 Pisces, and that Sophia, Isis and Vesta — all of whom seem to be signposts as the mythology has morphed through the millenia — all play a part in the nodal story. Just in case you’re interested :)

  3. jeannejeanne

    Thank you… I love your posts and mostly lurk. I was very ‘called’ to read this today.
    I sit with it, feeling like I need to pull the priestess out and let her speak to me.

  4. Christine Gamache

    Amanda,
    You can’t make this shit up. I awoke from a dream like no other. I am out in deep space, receiving communications on how to work out some issues in this life time. I travel all the way back, knowing its all taken care of. Take up reading Dancing the Dream, Jamie Sams………….she is speaking to me of what seems the text of Mars Rx. Then I read your piece here. I wept through most all of it. I recently hung three ebony masks, which I have had for years and never hung up, in the kiva where I do sound healing. I have been asking them who they are. I got the answer here today, the three forms of knowing.
    I looked on Astrodienst for Sophia. I found Sofian. Are they one and the same? Or where can I look to find her on my chart. Sofian showed up at 28 Scorpio…….which got my attention. Isis at 18 Cancer. Another heads up hearts awake.
    Christine

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