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January 9 through January 15, 2023

Doors can magically open on Monday, as the Leo Moon urges us to reach for the stars and start pursuing our dreams. Tuesday the Moon moves into Virgo for a three-day visit, bringing out our detailed and organized sides. Watch for criticism or stubbornness over the course of the week, as Virgo can tend to bring out our idealistic sides. Mars will turn direct on Thursday after a two-month retrograde cycle, and officially kick off the new year with action, action, and more action! Get ready to rock and roll! Friday and Saturday’s Libra Moon will be a call for balance, as we clear out the remnants of the last year and start preparing for the new one. If you haven’t hung your calendars, dusted off your day planner, or set up your virtual scheduling apps, now is the time. Sunday’s Scorpio Moon will cast a spiritual vibe all around us, compelling us to stop, pause, and look internally for the balance and intuitive direction we need to move forward.

7 Steps to Connect with Faery, by Emily Carding

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

In the Twenty-First Century, the Faery realm is as popular as ever; yet, in our culture of instant gratification and unmoderated media platforms, there are many false paths and illusory pitfalls to distract and misdirect us. How, then, can the true seeker of Faery be sure they are not following some metaphorical (or sometimes literal) Will-o’-the-Wisp into hazardous swampland? Here are the seven steps you need to take to be sure that you are living authentically and in sync with our Faery cousins.

1. Knowledge
Read widely and wisely! Of course books are not the only source of knowledge, but they are a good place to start (and continue—we should never stop learning!), in balance with the more experiential steps to follow. Find recommendations from people you respect and familiarise yourself with traditional folklore and mythology, particularly Irish, Scottish, and Welsh. Any good book on Faery should also have a good bibliography, which you can explore for further reading and deeper exploration. The more varied your reading, the stronger your discernment will be and the less likely you are to be led off the true path into illusion. It's also important to realise that many faery beings are hostile and/or unpredictable. The more you know, the more prepared you will be.

2. Expand Your Awareness
It can be all too easy to get stuck in our heads and mistake wishful thinking and the untrained imagination for real experience. Therefore, one of the most important steps to true connection with Faery is to expand your energetic awareness outside of your own body and into the world around you. Here is an exercise that is featured in both Faery Craft and my new book, Seeking Faery.

Exercise: Becoming the Faery Tree
This exercise is designed to connect you to the energies of the land and to open up your heart centre to increase sensitivity to the presence and communications of Faery beings. Depending on your physical capabilities, this may be performed standing or sitting, but in either instance you should ideally have your feet bare and on the land outside, in as natural a space as possible, ideally where you won't be disturbed. Keeping upright and relaxed, with your feet a small distance apart and your hands by your sides, take seven slow deep breaths (in through the nose, hold for three seconds, and slowly out through the mouth), as you allow tension and concerns of the day to melt away.

On your next breath, with your palms at your side facing downwards, imagine your feet slowly turning into tree roots and digging down into the earth beneath you. Feel the strength of the earth and the stability and nourishment that the roots provide you with. Maintain this for seven deep breaths in and out.

Now, for your next seven breaths, maintaining your roots, slowly bring your arms up into a "v" shape and raise your palms to the sky. Imagine that your arms are becoming great branches, reaching for the light of Sun, Moon, and Stars. Maintain both roots and branches for a further seven deep breaths.

Keeping your arms upright in the "v" position, now imagine that your roots are drawing emerald green light up from the earth towards your heart. Breathe it in and draw it up with seven deep breaths. Now imagine that your branches are drawing down the silver light of the heavens into your heart. Draw it down with seven deep breaths. The green and silver light meets in your heart and becomes golden and swirling, opening your heart to the energies of Earth and connecting you to above and below.

For beginners, maintain this as long as you are comfortable and then release the energies back up through your branches and down through your roots, slowly lower your arms and slowly draw your roots back into your feet and become your normal self again. Seven deep breaths to recover. As you become more used to this exercise, you may find you can do shorter or longer versions as you wish.

3. Offerings
As well as expanding your awareness energetically, it is possible to reach out and connect in a more tangible way with appropriate offerings. This not only helps to form an energetic bridge between the worlds but also shows your willingness to collaborate and not simply expect gifts or guidance with no effort on your part. The choice of offering is significant, as is being sure to clean up afterwards. It is a good idea, if possible, to find an outdoor location for your offerings where you instinctively feel your connection with Faery is strong and where you will not be disturbed. Whilst this might be an established sacred site, it can be more powerful to find a personal connection on a less-trod path. Consider the value of the offerings you bring, and the impact on the environment. If leaving food of any kind, be sure to check that it is cleared and not simply left to rot. Very often these offerings will be consumed by animals, which is absolutely fine (faery beings sometimes borrow these physical forms to accept offerings) so long as you make sure they contain nothing toxic to animal life (for example chocolate).

4. Ethics and Honour
You may think that it's faeries who are usually invisible, but the truth is, they can see right through you, too! If there is any deception or falsehood in your heart, they will sense it and treat you accordingly. Like any magical path, it is of utmost importance to know yourself and establish a strong code of honour and ethics that you abide by in every aspect of your life, not just your work with Faery.

5. Expression
For many, myself included, communication with Faery comes through creative expression. This is a direct communication heart-to-heart or spirit-to-spirit, and these channels must be free and open to receive. Any negative thoughts about your own creativity need to be overcome by simply creating in any way you feel moved to, be it art, dance, poetry. Nobody will judge you, unless you choose to share it with the world, but your soul and your faery allies will thank you.

6. Imagination
When working with Otherworldly beings and forces, the imagination becomes an extra sense through which we can perceive those things which are hidden from our earthly senses. The traps here are clear, and thus it is important to train the imagination through visualisation, meditation, and journey techniques so that it becomes a reliable translator of energies rather than a fanciful self-deception.

7. Grounding
Always come back to this. After any encounter or working with Faery, be sure to ground yourself in your body and the physical world around you. Release the otherworldly energies to their source, feel your feet on the earth, taste good food and drink water. Regularly take time to simply be in Nature, see the wonder that is the world we inhabit, and you will have no need for illusion—you will simply learn to see the magic in deeper truths as you walk the path of Faery in peace, truth and joy.

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

Life has been tough lately. I can't find work, had to fight to get grant money to upgrade my skills, and have been fighting the VA to upgrade my disability. I was at a metaphysical fair a while back, and while looking at some merchandise, this woman walked up to me and told me that the Universe wants me to rest, and that's why I'm having all these problems, why I can't seem to get a job, etc. Does the Universe/Spirit decide such things as when I need a rest in my life? I have worked most of my life and have chosen to remain single. I have gone through all my assets and I am scared I will not have enough to retire on. If what that woman said is true, the Universe/Spirit has picked the damnedest time to force me to rest. I don't know if I can handle much more, especially living here in the desert. What do you think?

- Karen

Dreamchaser:

Karen, you say that "the Universe/Spirit has picked the damnedest time to force" you to rest. Would there have been a better time in your life? Were you ever at a point where you were able, in any form, to take a rest? I would venture to say the answer to those questions is "no." There is no good time (in our human opinions) for struggle. We tend to say, "Why NOW?" Well, as I said, it is not like there going to be a better time.

Whenever we struggle in any way (with finances, health, faith, etc.), we tend to try to find a solution or an answer. The iceberg theory applies here: we can usually only see just the tip of things. Under the surface, there is this HUGE mountain of ice that is keeping everything frozen. You cannot see why this is happening, so your efforts to try to fix things are not really helping at all. There is a bigger plan. You just are not privy to it at this time, so all the fixing that you are trying to do is not accomplishing much of anything except making you tired.

I keep flashing back to a man from the Christian Bible named Job. I am sure you have heard of him. His problems were not even about his life. His problems were a result of God and the Devil doing battle - a bet, if you will. All Job did "wrong" was be the most just man on the planet. He was tortured for being too GOOD. I think you need to look at Job as an example in your own life. Read about him if you want. Maybe you'll get some much-needed inspiration.

You also said another mouthful when you said, "I am scared." This is like a light switch. It cannot be on and off at the same time. We cannot be walking in faith and afraid at the same time. You believe in Spirit enough to go to a metaphysical fair and listen to something a woman walked up and told you out of the blue. Maybe you should go find your faith that went missing. If you could find it, you would stop trying to fix things, and you would be at peace with how things are, because you would know that things would move again when the time is right.

I do understand how you feel. We all lose our faith from time to time. It is time for you to go looking for it again. You have worried and tried to fix things for long enough. Just because we are suffering and things are very difficult does not mean that Spirit has abandoned us. It just means that we are going through hard times and they've gotten the better of us. It's easy to trust when things are good. Are we really THAT fickle?

I wish you attainment.

*****

Astrea:

We are LUCKY. No matter what happens, something always comes along to save us. You can't find a job right now? When you get down to your last two nickels, a dream job will fall right into your lap. You can't get yourself motivated to get going? Something will come along after this last Mercury Retrograde that will inspire you.

Everyone gets depressed from time to time, but a Sag knows how to blast herself out of that state. You need to do some BLASTING, that's all. Blast away at that feeling of lethargy; giving up is dangerous. NEVER GIVE UP!

I know what an awful year it's been for you: piles of stress piling onto more big piles of stress that were there already, people being ugly and rude, family letting you down at every turn. Yes, I do know. This next year (2004), however, is going to be FABULOUS for FIRE SIGNS! We're finally going to slow down enough to allow the abundance the Universe has planned for us to come into our lives.

Perhaps this was what the lady in the store was trying to tell you. Sit tight and wait and rest NOW, and let these things start to stack up on the POSITIVE side of your life. You're going to be so busy in 2004 making money and having a good time that this is the only "down time" you'll have for a long time. Take advantage of it until January 6, and then go ALL OUT to get what you've only dreamed of before.

As for the Universe wanting us to REST - OH! If that was so, I would be back in bed this morning! Whether it's a blessing or not, a Sag is DRIVEN. We're driven to do everything BUT rest! From my own Sagittarius experience, I know very well that "rest" is a foreign concept to us; it's something we do when we're SICK. It's that way with all Fire Signs, but we seem to get an extra dose of "busy hands are happy hands." Even if you're not working, you can be creating. Write, dance, walk, run, play! Lots of exercise will help your head get straightened out, and will lift that depression, too!

As tempting as it might be to heed the stranger who came up to you in that store, I think you know that was just the Devil trying to make you get all lazy. As a Sag, you have to take charge of your own life EVERY SINGLE DAY to make sure you get as much out of each day as possible. Life is too short for us; more so than for any other sign. Gosh, GIRL, have some FUN!

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.