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February 5 through February 11, 2024

Happy Chinese New Year of the Dragon! An Aquarius new Moon occurs on Friday, February 9th, which officially kicks off Chinese New Year on the 10th. The dragon symbolizes power, change, and spirituality, as well as good luck, fortune, and prosperity. In some cultures, the dragon is a protector and can help us tap in to our truest power and potentials this year. Of our new year resolutions fell flat, this is a second chance to recommit to the changes we want to make. On Monday Mercury will also move into Aquarius, challenging us to "think different" for the next few weeks. Breaking out of old molds and thought processes will be the challenge as it moves through this electric sign. Our most productive days of the week will be Tuesday and Wednesday as the Moon marches through Capricorn, so let's get our "to-do" lists completed before the fireworks and celebrations begin!

An Excerpt from Let Us Be Greater by Michelle Madrid

As an international adoptee and someone who has worked with adopted adults and youth as a life coach, I’ve identified eight adoptee pain points, places of hurt that adoptees need to heal. These pain points can cause challenges in the adoptee’s life, keeping them from a place of peace and wholeness within. Setting the course to compassionately and soulfully heal and reframe these eight primary sources of pain — transforming points of pain into points of light. The adoptee pain points are:

The pain of feeling unwelcome in the world

The pain of broken bonds and a deep sense of loss

The pain of being denied access to truth

The pain of familial rejection and of words that harm

The pain of distrust

The pain of banished biology

The pain of pleasing others versus pleasing the self

The pain of lack of transparency and acceptance

Adoptees may feel out of control and at the mercy of one, several, or all of these pain points. Our work here, together, is to transform this pain and to empower our lives as adoptees.

The motivation to transform can be found in this question:

What if this is as good as it gets?

Is this what you’re asking yourself as an adoptee about the pain you’re carrying? Do you believe that the pain will never get any better? I learned, through an exercise called the Dickens Process, to sink into a painful limiting belief and imagine what it would feel like if I was still living with it one year, three years, five years, or ten years down the road. The Dickens Process is an NLP (neurolinguistic programming) technique that guides you to use your conscious mind in identifying the consequences of a limiting belief and in deciding whether you want to continue with that belief. The essence of this exercise is based on the character Scrooge from Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Scrooge is famously shown his past, his present, and what his future will look like if he doesn’t change his ways. The Dickens Process has you identify a limiting belief and then look at it in depth through the lens of three questions:

What did this limiting belief cost you and your loved ones in the past? What have you lost because of this belief? See it. Hear it. Feel it.
What is this limiting belief costing you and those you care about in the present? See it. Hear it. Feel it.
What will this limiting belief cost you and the people you care about one year, three years, five years, or ten years down the road? See it. Hear it. Feel it.

Once you’ve dwelled on the pain of this limiting belief and experienced what it feels like to hold on to it, you will be motivated to create a new limitless belief that inspires and empowers you. Here’s my question for you:

What limiting belief is holding you back today? What if the pain you feel right now, because of this belief, is exactly how you’ll feel one year, three years, five years, or ten years down the road? Maybe you’re telling yourself, as I once did, that you’re just one of those people meant to live a life that’s smaller than the dreams you hold inside. Maybe you believe that staying quiet and concealed, as an adoptee, is how you’ll stay safe from rejection. Maybe you’re living on someone else’s terms. Are you? Are you living someone else’s narrative for your life? Are you falling in line but secretly falling apart inside? I don’t want you to feel this way — not for one more second. What would it be like for you to leave your limiting beliefs behind, once and for all, and move forward with new and limitless ones? Take time to consider the questions of the Dickens Process. It’s a game changer. It works! We’ll revisit this process in chapter 1 during a reflection exercise.

My adoptive mother once told me that I could start finding out more about my first family and my ethnicity once she was no longer around. This was a damaging comment, and it came from my own mother. The comment was based in fear, only I didn’t know that at the time. Mom was fearful of losing me, and I was petrified of being rejected by her. Neither one of us was operating from a space of unconditional love.

And so I did what my mother asked. Like a good adopted girl, I sat inside the waiting room of my own life. The only thing that grew during that time were the pain points. Like thick vines, they entangled me in fear. I felt trapped and lost. Maybe you do, too.

We’re not here, as adoptees, to live someone else’s life. We’re here to live our own lives, our big and beautiful lives! We’re here to be who we are and who we’re destined to become. We’re here to do that from the purest place of authenticity and essence.
My desire to get to the truth of me and to reignite the light within me has taken me on a transformational journey of self-discovery, self-compassion, and self-love. That journey began when I picked up a book by Louise Hay in graduate school called You Can Heal Your Life. The title didn’t say that you can heal your life — unless you’re adopted. No, it offered me the assurance that I really could heal my life, even as an adoptee. Hay’s book awakened me to a place of pure love, empowerment, and self-acceptance. I wanted to get to that place in my own way and through my own experiences. I want to help you get there, too.

My potential once seemed so limited. Today I view my potential as vast and without boundaries. I used to perceive adoption as my weakness, but now I see it as a source of my strength. I’ve traveled deep within in order to transform my life. I’ve learned to shift limiting beliefs into limitless truth. I’ll be asking you to do the same as we, adoptee to adoptee, move through the pages of this book.

You see, the pain you may be struggling with right now isn’t as good as it gets. It’s not all there is! There’s so much more awaiting you beyond the pain. Do you have the power to heal your life? Yes, I believe with all that I am that you do.

Michelle Madrid is the author of Let Us Be Greater: A Gentle, Guided Path to Healing for Adoptees and host of the Electricity of You Podcast. She is an international adoptee, former foster child in the UK, and an adoptee empowerment life coach who has been recognized as an Angels in Adoption® Honoree by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) and inducted into the New Mexico Women’s Hall of Fame for her work in adoption. She lives in Los Angeles and you can visit her online at http://TheMichelleMadrid.com.

Excerpted from the book Let Us Be Greater: A Gentle, Guided Path to Healing for Adoptees ©2023 by Michelle Madrid. Printed with permission from New World Library — www.newworldlibrary.com

I often feel like I have a gift for sensing vibrations in people, but I also feel this ability is not where it should be. I know that I am capable of greater spiritual awareness. How can I further develop this talent? I'm often frustrated by the feeling that I'm unable to break through an invisible barrier that is preventing me from being able to fully read other people. How can I do this? Or am I expecting too much? Can you read other people fully and know everything you desire psychically, or are you also just working with vague hunches and feelings? Thank you for your insights. I certainly hope that I'm not alone in feeling this way.

Melinda

Dreamchaser:

The vibrations you feel from other people are their energies. Energy travels. Every living thing transmits energy. Energy is often the foundation for first impressions. We have no reason to instantly like (or dislike) someone, especially when we have not even spoken to each other yet, but in many cases, we instantly feel attracted or repelled when we meet someone. What is really happening is that we sense and react to their energy.

Some people transmit really strong, clear energy, and other people have really weak or clouded energy. I think this depends on a person's mindset, level of spiritual evolvement, and emotional well-being, amongst other factors.

Animals sense energy naturally and automatically. I have heard MANY single people say that if their pet does not like a person, then that person is "no good" and they do not even get a chance. I tend to subscribe to that approach as well. If my cats' backs go up and they hiss at someone, that individual is usually not a very good person. Animals involuntarily react to the energies of the beings around them, and animals do not have logic to interfere with what they "know" instinctively.

Now, I do not go through my everyday life reading people. I do, however, find myself responding and reacting to energy just like everyone else does; I just know what I'm sensing and how to "read" it better than a lot of people. For example, if I walk up to someone I know likes (or dislikes) me, I can pick up on it and deal with that person appropriately.

I do not believe that anyone can or SHOULD know everything they want to know about someone else. One of the biggest Karmic rules I follow is "Do not pry." I am only allowed to look into what a client asks me to look into; I can't pry into anyone else's business. If my client's question would pry into a third party's business, I can't answer that either.

For example, if a client says, "Can you tell me what my boyfriend is thinking about me?" I can probably answer that, because it applies to her and directly concerns her. If a client were to ask, "Is my ex-boyfriend having sex with his new girlfriend?" I would not be able to answer that, as it does not directly apply to the client, and it is none of our business. Make sure you honor that Karmic law and do not pry!

Those "vague hunches" (as you call them) are not as vague as you think. Start exploring more deeply the energy of everyone you meet in your everyday life, and you will start to realize that your "vague hunches" are for the most part right on the money!

I wish you clear psychic channels.

*****

Astrea:

Many people feel that they could have better psychic awareness, but they are unable or unwilling to develop it for any number of reasons. I think the most common stopper is the closed attitude of so many families towards that kind of ability. Lots of religious organizations frown on that sort of thing as well. Thus many folks have been discouraged from developing their full psychic potential.

I also believe that with the right focus and effort, EVERYONE can have develop the ability to read others. Most people are just too busy or occupied with other things to spend the time it takes. Like playing the piano, dancing or drawing, psychic awareness takes PRACTICE - lots and lots of it! We are all born with a "sixth sense," but like anything else, it requires a lot of hard work to access. Further, if we develop it but stop using it, we'll lose it.

I'm not saying that EVERYONE is PSYCHIC, or even that everyone who thinks they are can do this. Many times I'll be reading for someone who thinks she is a gifted psychic who hasn't got a clue. Sometimes that ability has been so squelched that the person is never going to be able to call upon it in this incarnation. Unless this ability is nurtured and grows as the person grows, nothing will happen. However, it's never too late to start to reawaken your natural gifts.

Choose a tool to focus your attention like tarot cards, astrology, runes, etc., and just START READING. At first a lot won't make much sense to you, but after about three months of daily practice, you'll begin to see patterns emerge every time you pick up the tool of your choice. If the first tool you choose doesn't work for you, try a different one until you find one that helps you tune in. Set aside at least an HOUR A DAY, preferably at the same time each day, for this practice. In a short time, you'll find that answers WILL come to you. They'll be patchy at first, but the longer you practice, the easier it will get.

I never work from vague hunches, and for the most part, the feelings I get are NOT vague. Sometimes it takes me a few minutes to find a compassionate answer, because often it won't be what the person wants to hear. I remain rooted in the REALITY of the question and the person asking it. That's why I only answer SPECIFIC questions. I refuse to do general readings because they wear me down to a NUB! I can't work without some focus! Vague/general questions yield vague/general answers. General readings are a big drain and a waste of time.

As you begin to develop your ability, you'll see that too. Good luck!

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.