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May 15 through May 21, 2023

Get ready to rock and roll this week, as four important astrological shifts take place and reset the tone for the next few months. The sign of Taurus takes center stage this week, starting with Jupiter’s move into this sign on Tuesday, which will take us from high energy to a more grounded and ambitious focus for the next few years. The Moon will travel through Taurus for the remainder of the work week, culminating in a Taurus new Moon on Friday. New Moons signal a two-week cycle of fresh starts and new beginnings, so this is the ideal time to take all those brilliant ideas you’ve been pondering and start putting them into action. Mars will move into the vibrant sign of Leo on Friday and spend the next two months encouraging us to shine brightly in the world! Mars thrives in fire signs, and Leo is no exception. It’s time to share your wonder, generosity, talents, and heart with the world! And if you haven’t been tooting your own horn lately, the Sun will dance into Gemini on Sunday and encourage you to broadcast your brilliance out to the world for the next four weeks!

Are You the Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, or Metal Element? Introducing the Personality Test You Didn’t Know You Needed, by Tisha Morris

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

Personality tests are a multi-million-dollar industry with a continued growth rate of 10% to 15% annually. According to the Harvard Business Review, it's common for employers to require workers to take personality assessments to identify who to hire and how they can best collaborate and work as a team member. In the post-pandemic era, personality tests are likely to only increase as more workers move to remote working. In such work environments, a personality test may be the best indicator of one's personality and work style.

The Myers-Briggs test developed in the 1960s has continued to be the most popular personality assessment test in the workplace and for interpersonal use. Now, we have a multitude of personality systems with which to define ourselves, such as astrology, human design, and the enneagram. However, the Five Elements based in ancient Taoism is arguably the earliest of all personality indicators.

The Five Elements were first introduced in the ancient text, known as the I Ching, or Book of Changes, as the foundational building blocks of everything that exists. They were not originally viewed in terms of the individual until thousands of years later when Chinese Medicine applied the Five Elements for purposes of medical diagnoses. Chinese Medicine used the Five Elements to determine an imbalance in the organ systems, which we now know as Acupuncture.

It was after Chinese Medicine migrated to the West when the Five Elements were also used as a system for individual personality types. While there is no exact marker for when this evolution took place, it most likely occurred as a result of the depth psychology movement spearheaded by psychoanalyst Carl Jung. In fact, Carl Jung looked to the I Ching as a guide for the archetypes that became a significant part of his work.

Considering that the field of psychology was developed only 150 years ago and only became mainstream approximately fifty years ago, we've had a relatively short amount of time in our evolution to consider who we are, what we want, and what makes us happy. Until then, the individual ego that gives rise to one's personality was not examined to the extent it is today.

Perhaps our fascination with ourselves can be attributed to having more options than ever in choosing what career or relationship is best for us, particularly for women who were historically exempt from such choices. It's now rare to commit to one career or one person and stick with it for the rest of our life. The pursuit of what will make us happy is not as easy as it seems and takes self-inquiry to help find what will bring us satisfaction.

You may be wondering what makes The Five Elements different from the other personality systems. The Five Elements consist of Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal, which exist as the cycle of birth, growth, death, and rebirth in nature. According to Taoist philosophy, everything on the planet consists of the Five Elements, including us humans. It's the one system that doesn't separate us with all living or non-living beings. We are all a microcosm of the Universe, a mini-Universe, so to speak, and thus all connected. And yet we all have our unique concentration of the Five Elements.

At our base, we all share these core energies. Our individuality is expressed with each one of us having a slightly different concentration of each element. In other words, we all have the same recipe, just a different amount of each ingredient. For example, some people have more yang energy, meaning they embody more Wood or Fire elements, while others are naturally more yin and thus embody more Metal or Water elements. This individual makeup of energy will play a role in one's physical characteristics, energy level, and even personality traits. Some people may have a high concentration in one element, while someone else may be more evenly balanced among all five elements.

Not only do we each have our own Five Elements constitution that makes us unique, but your profile may change as you go through different phases and experiences in your life. Knowing that we fit into a category can be comforting, but it can also be limiting to the full breadth of who we are and who we can become. Instead of stuffing yourself in a box, you can truly be all categories by what you put your attention on. Thus, the Five Elements allows expansion of ourselves.

By reading the following elemental descriptions, you'll probably glean some insight as to which elements you are stronger and weaker in. Usually, there are one or two elements that feel natural to us and at least one element that feels foreign or challenging. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses can be an invaluable tool in understanding yourself in work and relationships. While the full characteristics of the elements are beyond the scope of this article, the following descriptions provide a quick look at each element as personality types.

Water Element: The Water Element is the Philosopher. They are quiet and typically introverted, and yet so unassuming. They hold a quiet strength. They may seem fragile at times, but they are anything but weak. They are deeply creative, contemplative, and introspective. They will most likely be the ones to figure out the key to world peace or an invention that saves climate change. It will be up to the other elements however to implement it.

Wood Element: The Wood Element is the Pioneer. They are the leaders, inventors, seekers, and visionaries. They will take the lead in groups and take action steps to create movement in projects. They can easily vacillate between being introverted and extroverted depending on what a situation calls for. For example, they can work solo on creating a new business or work well with groups. Wood elements keep things in forward motion and their challenge is to know when to contract their energy or take a step back.

Fire Element: The Fire Element is the Manifestor. They are high energy and generally extroverted. They are often the life of the party and enjoy life. Like a flame, they create the highest expression of energy in the form of enthusiasm and passion. Fire elements provide the fuel in projects in order that they manifest in its highest and truest form. While the idea may have been born with the Water element, and the Wood element provided forward motion, it is the Fire element that brings something to full culmination.

Earth Element: The Earth Element is the Stabilizer. They are the grounding force that keeps the status quo maintained so that change doesn't happen too quickly. The Earth element is the container or stage on which we all get to play. They are highly supportive people that bring harmony to groups and help maintain the peace. Think of the Earth element as the parent that keeps harmony among the children when bickering ensues. They go out of their way to not ruffle feathers. Worry is their default emotion, especially when something seems out of their control that could lead to possible change.

Metal Element: The Metal Element is the Organizer. They are natural organizers and keep things in check and on schedule. They make great accountants, engineers, scientists, editors, architects, personal assistants, and professional organizers. They are guaranteed to be detail-oriented, focused, and precise in anything they do. They tend to cut to the chase in conversation without the need for embellishments. They also love an orderly environment with even their storage items labeled appropriately.

For a deeper dive into identifying your primary element and your missing element, you can take the Five Elements Quiz in the book, Missing Element, Hidden Strength. Once you determine your missing element, you can learn how to integrate it into your everyday life, along with all Five Elements. You'll likely find that your missing element is what has kept you from starting projects, finishing tasks, or even sticking with relationships. Once you identify it, embrace it, and embody your missing element, it will soon become your hidden strength to unlocking your full creative potential.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2022. All rights reserved.

A while back, I received an email from a friend who lives across the country. I hadn't talked to her in a few months. She said that she was dropping me a line to say hello. She was thinking about me because she had had a dream about me the night before. In her dream, we were meeting at a bar for a drink. When she walked in, I was sitting on a tall chair, and my feet were dangling down, like I was a dwarf. She thought it was funny. A few hours later, I received another email from a friend who lives in the same state I do, but we hadn't spoken in several months. She too had dreamed of meeting me, only in her dream we were to meet at a party. When she walked into the room, she noticed that I was about four feet tall. She thought it was funny and wanted to tell me about it. Needless to say, I was speechless when I received her email. These two people don't know each other; they don't even know OF each other. How could they both have almost the same dream, certainly the same theme of me being a little person, on the same night? There has never been anything bad between myself or either one of them. I don't know what it might mean, if anything, but it seems beyond coincidence to me. What do you think it means?

Vince

Susyn:

There are no coincidences, only synchronicities designed to shift our focus and heighten our awareness. The fact that two friends had similar dreams about you on the same night is striking, so let's investigate this further.

Metaphysically, we all share a spiritual consciousness, so it's possible for seemingly unrelated people to have the same dreams, ideas or experiences at the same time. An example of this the The Hundredth Monkey effect, which got its name when a monkey on a Pacific island decided to wash his food before eating it. Soon all the other monkeys on the island began to follow suit. While this was not surprising, the amazing thing was how, after a certain number of monkeys had taken up the practice (about 100), other monkeys on distant islands began to wash their food even though they had no physical contact with the monkeys on the first island. Henry Ford was not the only person inspired to build an automobile, nor Edison the light bulb: other totally unconnected people were working on similar inventions at the exact same time.

Even though your friends have never met each other, both have a strong connection to you. There was a reason they both recounted similar dreams to you: it was such an important message that Spirit did not want you to miss it! Dreams that portray one as short in stature are not necessarily negative. Note that both your friends found the dreams amusing rather than alarming.

When a change in physical characteristics is prominent in a dream, we should examine its metaphysical meanings. I think this dream may be about you shortchanging yourself personally. Because you met both your friends at a social event, it might indicate that you were withdrawn at the time or cutting yourself off from the world at large. In this day and age of computers and text messages, we often end up connecting with others from our easy chairs. Another meaning could involve shortchanging yourself emotionally. If you are or have been involved with either of these friends, this could be something to look at. In fact, comparing the similarities of the two people who had this dream could hold further clues.

Perhaps you are feeling limited in your career or finances or ignoring your health. Considering any aspect of your life where you feel you're being shortchanged may will reveal the hidden message in these dreams. Once you figure out how its meaning, you will begin to receive intuitive guidance on how to go about changing the area that is falling short for you.

*****

Oceania:

Do you in any way resemble a renowned dwarf actor such as Warwick Davis, Peter Dinklage or Herve Villechaize? It's possible one of them appeared in a television movie or series or as a guest on a late-night talk show the evening before your two friends had their respective dreams. They both may have seen the actor and made an unconscious association with you if you and the actor share a facial feature, smile, hair style, expression, gesture or personality trait.

Perhaps you resemble one of the actors from the popular Lord of the Rings films, which feature dwarves and hobbits. Perhaps both of your friends saw one of the movies the day before they dreamed of you and made an unconscious association. It is surprising how much we observe in a given day that never makes it through to our conscious awareness. Sometimes when we examine our dreams carefully, we can identify where various bits and pieces came from in the prior day.

There are other possible explanations for your friends having similar dreams about you. Friends - especially female friends - can be very tuned in to our emotional state and often sense what we're going through even at a distance. Your friends may have picked up on you feeling small, powerless or child-like in some area of your life at that time. Though your insecurity may have troubled you, it may have seemed absurd or even humorous to friends who think highly of you and found it hard to imagine you feeling small, which made their dreams seem funny to them.

If we examine the two dreams in detail, we see that one of your friends had you on a pedestal of sorts - a tall chair with your feet dangling down - indicating that she looks up to you and/or is aware of your discomfort with high places! Perhaps you had recently been promoted or given more responsibility but didn't feel entirely comfortable in that role. In your other friend's dream, her perspective was to see you shorter than her, suggesting that she sensed your discomfort and wanted to comfort you or raise you up.

I would reflect back on the time period when your friends wrote to you and assess whether you were undergoing a professional change or a personal challenge. The dreams may have been expressions of your friends' women's intuition, which makes them good people to turn to when you need advice or support in the future. If you want to further insight into this synchronistic event, you could ask your friends for feedback about how each of them perceived you at the time of their similar dreams.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.