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April 11 through April 17, 2022

Two important astrological events mark this week, as Mars moves into the spiritually-based sign of Pisces and the Moon waxes full in Libra. With Mars traveling through Pisces for the next six weeks, we'll be prone to following our intuition over the facts, as well as making decisions that are unsupported by logic. That's okay though, as bowing to the spiritual urges and acting on them is sure to take us where we want to go during this cycle. We'll be under the influence of the waxing full Moon all week, and this one is famous for surprising us in the area of relationships. It's not uncommon to get a text or call from someone from your past, or, to encounter someone so familiar we are sure we know them from a past life! And, if there are any areas of your life that are out of balance, this full Moon is sure to point them out so we can correct those and reclaim our equilibrium. Monday the Moon will cruise through Leo and offer a fairly easy going day, but once it moves into Virgo on Tuesday, we'll spend the next three days thinking, researching and expressing our ideas and thoughts with abandon. We'll need to take care though, as not all people agree with or appreciate our opinions, so assess your audience before waxing eloquent! The Moon moves into calming Libra on Friday and waxes full on Saturday, making for a calm and peaceful weekend. Enjoy!

Finding Your Magical Teacher, by Penny Billington

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

Magic is abroad in the world!

What connects the Witch, Druid, Heathen, Shaman, Pagan…? A yearning for magic. We long for mystery. We need a deep connection to join magical to mundane in our lives. And so, we become followers of the nature religions. Intuitively, we know that the path to enchantment is through nature.

Most of us long for a teacher. As we weave our way with spell craft, study, divination, weather work, and meditation, we remember the old saying: "When the student is ready, the teacher will come."

Maybe you have been waiting many years. I believe a slight change in perspective will reveal at least one teacher waiting, just as patiently, for you to learn the esoteric rule—you must go to the teacher, not wait for them to come to you.

In fact, a whole forest awaits. Our teachers, quite literally, are the trees.

Maybe that seems so simple that you feel a little let down. But bear with me, for the portals to enchanted living really are standing in plain sight.

Using the simplest form of your usual practice—no incense, no robes, no equipment, just breath and awareness—let's share a quick exercise. You can even read it as you do it.

• Set your intent, to be nourished by the strength and wisdom of the trees
• Send your awareness down as you breathe with the earth; then high up, to breathe the sky
• Feel earth and sky meeting within you and spreading through every cell
• Sense yourself rooted and standing tall, arms wide, bridging the two worlds, like a tree
• Feel intensely that you are in the right place: your heart exudes love

Then…

• Imagine standing in a clearing, with a circle of trees around you
• Stretch your pointing finger, and slowly spin round, connecting to the tree-circle
• "See" a green/golden globe—the ancient forest—surrounding you
• The circle is a safe containment within which you can grow and relate to magic. Rest here for a few breaths.
• Allow this energy to descend like a cloak of forest green onto your shoulders.

For many students, this is a real stress-buster. It allows them to step back from the immediacy of mundane problems. Bringing the forest scene to mind and imagining the cloak of deep green wisdom brings space and perspective. It lets us view problems in a more measured way. This is not wish-craft, withdrawing from reality, but real magic, which is relevant to every area of our lives.

If imaginal contact with ancient trees can do this for us in just a few minutes, just imagine how we might benefit from visiting them throughout the year. Like all good pupils, we can literally sit at their feet! So, let's start—at whatever season—by making a connection. Let's go into a park, a wood, the tree in our backyard. If you can't get out, look to the tree outside your window.

Remember, we are reaching to the spirit in the tree, through observance of its physicality. Just as with making friends with humans, we notice, feel the vibes, introduce ourselves. Just go on a thoughtful walk. Notice that trees are large and long-lived, they look at home, they are happy in their diversity, and each claims its own space. Remember always they are essential to our lives: as you breathe in the oxygen they produce, sit on wooden furniture, warm yourself with fires, and eat the nuts and fruits they gift.

There are many courtesies involved in making relationship, and I go through a suggested staged process in Nine Ways to Charm a Dryad. On your introductory walk, activate and rely on your intuition to sense welcoming trees. Spend some time with them, until one becomes more open. You sense a more intimate connection—not as you would with another human, but unmistakable to your inner senses. It may come as a feeling of welcome, of rightness, of joy as you come near it. Being with your tree should leave you optimistic and grateful.

So, you have found a tree that feels friendly. Now start regarding it as a teacher. It's an odd way of thinking, maybe, but, "What can you teach me? How can I learn?" are good questions to whisper when you next visit.

All learning starts with observing and imitation. Imitation? Why not? Nature spirituality is embodied: we celebrate our mobility and grace, no matter what our physical limitations. So, in your home, feel your feet strong-rooted, sway with the winds, imagine your deepest longings as beautiful fruit hanging from your fingertips, falling to nourish the world. And then get back outside to your actual tree.

If the feeling from your tree changes from "welcome," to "go away now," and if your response changes to anxiety, notice and stop—always with a thank you. After all, sometimes we all feel antisocial. Perhaps another tree will be more ready to communicate. The good news is that you can start right away! We can enter the Wheel of the Year at any time, whenever is right for us. Always, the continuity of the seasons is there, and we can learn to attune to it: something that our tree does naturally. Here are some pointers to start you off.

Winter—Spring (Winter Solstice to Imbolc)
Message from the Trees: dormancy, hibernation, dreaming
Appearance: silhouettes: stripped down to the bones; strong and enduring. Sap runs slowly; activity is minimal.

Walk to a sleeping tree; stand with it; feel its strength and how it resonates within you.

Questions for the Season:
Do you feel a quietness growing within you?
Can you endure with grace, as the tree withstands the winter weather?
How will you make quiet, connected ceremony to embrace the season?
How will you respond to the first intimations of spring whilst all is still cold?

Lessons from the Trees:
"I incubate my dreams during the dark times; do likewise!"
"Switch off your lights and stand with me under the stars and moon"
"Stripped of my leaves, I know my essence. Do you?"
"Can you learn to stand in an enchanted state, as I do?"

Spring—Summer (Imbolc to Beltane)
Message from the Trees: Awakening, sowing seeds (pollen), sap rising.
Appearance: Budding tips of green; hanging flowers and catkins, pollen spraying; greening and opening, leaves unfurling

Walk to a budding tree. Stand under it, feeling its awakening and how it also flows through you.

Questions for the Season:
Can you tune into the springing buds to awaken your youthful, spring energy?
How many shapes and sizes of buds can you find? Be amazed!
How many species of insects and birds do the trees support?

Lessons from the Trees:
"See the differences in our budding twigs as the forest begins to spring into life."
"Your aims are like buds: are they sharp and focussed or rounded and full of potential?"
"Imagine my catkin-pollen whirling on the breeze; feel the seeds of regrowth within."
"My increasing energy will become leaves, flowers and fruit. How will you use yours? (Scribbling and doodling or dancing to the radio wakes you up to life. Do something!)
"Focus your intent as I focus my running sap: reach for your aims as I reach my growing tips to the sky."

Summer – Autumn (Beltane to Samhain)
Message from the Trees: splendour, fruiting, magnificent burgeoning
Appearance: Glorious: myriad changing coloured leaves, heavy with fruits and seeds. A time of change, from splendour to overblown, fading and first-falling

Walk to a glorious tree; gaze at its colours and shape: fill your senses with every breath with its stored sunlight.

Questions for the Season:
Does the splendour of nature encourage you to be proud of your own achievements?
Does the activity of late summer in nature speak to your soul?
What ceremony will you make to celebrate them?
How will you adapt your ceremony and practice to the year's progression?

Lessons from the Trees:
"I wear my achievements in the sight of the world but yours may be hidden. Review and see what progress you've made."
"I respond to the changing light and the weather's effects. How do you feel?"
"Revel in the successes—of kindness, compassion and love—that clothe you like leaves."
"I have absorbed the feeling of this year's mellow harvest deep inside: how will you sustain that feeling?"

Autumn – Winter (Samhain to Imbolc)
Message from the Trees: slowing, sorting, going within, sloughing off
Appearance: every gale leaves more trees bare, and the evergreens step forward in the forest. The trees discard all that is no longer needed. The last fruits fall to ensure new life.

Walk to a shedding tree and stand on the crisp multicoloured leaves it has discarded. Lean against the trunk and relax into quiet acceptance of the season.

Questions for the Season:
Do you feel the urge to slow down?
Which parts of you, like the evergreens, will stay verdant and bright through the winter?
What ritual of thanks might you make for the essence of your connection?
How simple and sustainable can you make your magic?

Lessons from the Trees:
"I stand and feel my place in the great scheme of things. Are you as comfortable?"
"Accepting all, absorbing spirit, is the basis of my magic. What is the basis of your relationships with deities?"
"I am invigorated by the frost which breaks open the seed husks."
"I need space and quietness, a fallow time to recharge my batteries. Why not give yourself the same, as a gift?"

And now you've reached the end of another year of natural magic. You've attuned yourself to it by noticing, gratitude, and response. You've experienced the fascination of trees and have discovered that we must go out to magic, not wait for it to come to us! And when we go to the trees, they show us how our lives can be more connected: they introduce us to the spiritual current of the sentient earth.

I love the phrase "living in enchantment:" this is what we are all yearning for. And enchantment comes through the senses.

My book Nine Ways to Charm a Dryad is designed to help you enter the green world: to create a relationship with the spirit of a tree. The nine stages take you on a journey. Experiencing nature through all the senses, what gradually emerges is an understanding of yourself as a magical being.

One chapter explores Arcady, ancient place of wildness and magic. It's the home of Pan and his nymphs, where the lost are saved and nurtured by star-nurses; where shape-shifting heroes and mythic beings people the land. We can all "live in Arcady." We are on the way when we begin to explore the magic that is active in our world. It is the journey we make with the trees, through the year, to align ourselves with enchantment, here and now.

In the book I invite you to help to co-create the enchanted world, step by step; to experience the Charm of Arcadian dreaming. Your passport to Arcady is ready for you—is it time to get it stamped?

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

My life has been a mystical, wonderful journey. I have four children. My second born, a son, is often in my dreams. (I am a very lucid dreamer.) This son seems to be on a special spiritual journey with me to a higher existence. We help each other, and the trust we share is powerful. I have a great relationship with all my children, but this son seems to have a special purpose. My experience with him has been unusual from the start. For example, I was using birth control, yet I still conceived him. Why would this relationship seem so special and different? Any ideas you have would be appreciated! Thank you!

Sue

Dreamchaser:

I think what you are experiencing is more common than most parents admit. It is very politically correct to say, I love all my children equally, and they are all the same. Well, that is just not true. My children are completely different from one another, and I do not love them the same. I love my daughter for who and what she is, and I love my son for who and what he is. I love them both with all my heart, but my love is different for each person.

Your special relationship with your son has definitely grown from past life experiences. We have a soul family that we keep meeting over and over in different forms in THIS life. For example, my daughter in this life was my mother in a past life. This is very obvious at times. If she does not know where I am, she calls my cell phone and says, Where are you? Sometimes old relationships seep over into your relationships in this life. Because of all those past lives together, you and your son get along VERY well. You have a special bond with his soul. It does not mean he is your favorite, per se, but you do share more spiritual experiences with him than the others.

Sue, both my children were birth control babies. I firmly believe that if a soul is supposed to be here, it WILL get here. Your son came despite the birth control because he was supposed to be here. He is highly psychic and a strong empath. He has always been a very loving, caring and helpful soul.

He also has to learn his own lessons for his own soul. I feel strongly that your son is very close to Ascension. His soul is ready to stay on the Otherside instead of reincarnating here on earth. He is almost done learning everything that he has to learn. This is one of his last lives, if not the last. You are here to help each other. You are the one person on this planet who really understands him.

So, to wrap this all up in a pretty package, the reason this feels so special and different is because you and your son connect on a deeper level than you connect with any other person on this earth. You connect on a soul level. When we know someone at that deep level, it is always a unique and special bond. It is rare and hard to find. He is also a traveling companion while you are lucid dreaming, and that is a wonderful bond in and of itself.

I wish you and your son many happy adventures.

*****

Astrea:

The most important people in our lives are almost always people that we have known and loved in other incarnations. Holy relationships exist for all Souls who return to the Earth Plane. Whether the one we love is a father, brother, lover, husband, son or friend, all key relationships teach us really important spiritual lessons.

You and your son have been very close ever since a lifetime you shared in Atlantis when you were twins. Side by side, you worked on biological and scientific discoveries with a special aim at linking biology to spirituality in human beings and animals. You were especially fond of working with sea creatures - dolphins most of all.

From that lifetime, you moved on to Egypt, China, India, Russia, Western Europe, and now here, in the present time. The two of you are never part of the Random, but always part of the Purpose. Your goals were set before you reincarnated together. This time, your partner chose to be your son so that you could experience that kind of love with one another. This bond may be the strongest connection either of you will ever feel.

In Celestial Incarnations, when Souls rest and rejuvenate, you and your son planned other lives for the future, selecting your locations, parents, lovers and friends. Planning what your own Purpose was going to be in each incarnation to come took many hundreds of years, though sometimes, your return to a new life on earth occurred soon after the end of your previous life.

The other children may or may not have been with you in other lifetimes, but you're correct: this is a different kind of enlightenment you share with this particular son. It's not that you love the others less, but it feels like SO MUCH MORE with him. Perhaps this is because you know and understand each other better than you know the other people in your family. You recognize each other's moods and feelings, and see things in one another that other people on the outside can't see.

Hopefully, this will help you on your own journey and show you how far true understanding and loving affection can take people when they have been together in many lifetimes. Your relationship will also serve as a wonderful example of what is possible. By setting a great example of closeness and understanding, your whole family will be guided into a deeper, closer, more meaningful union.

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.