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November 18 through November 24, 2024

Two major planetary shifts rule the heavens this week, as Pluto moves into Aquarius on Tuesday and the Sun exits Scorpio for the fiery energy of Sagittarius on Thursday. Pluto in Aquarius speaks to great karmic changes ahead, and though they may be subtle at first, we’ll come to see new inventions, resolutions, and an expansion of personal freedom over the coming years, as Pluto will make itself at home in Aquarius for the next 18 years. The Moon hangs out in Cancer on Monday and Tuesday, turning our attention to home and family at the start of the week. Spoiler alert: Mercury will be going retrograde next week, but could start showing itself as soon as this Monday, so watch for electronic glitches and miscommunication! As the Moon enters Leo on Wednesday for a few days, our generosity and humanitarian sides are sure to emerge. The Sun will enter Sagittarius on Thursday, another sign that makes advocacy and justice for others a theme. The weekend unfolds under a Virgo Moon, which will inspire an early “winter cleaning” or making detailed lists about how we’re going to spend the remaining weeks of the year. It could even inspire a resolution list or two, but the main theme is getting organized and sorting through the details that will bring it all together.

Applied Meditation: How to Make Changes in Your Everyday Life with Meditation, by A. Paul Miller, PhD

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

Do you meditate? Or, do you wonder why people bother with meditation? After all, most of us are not concerned with reaching some higher plane of existence or gaining some "special powers." We have relationships to maintain, jobs to perform, and bills to pay. Meditation does provide us with some tranquil time, but we still have to function in this world—and cannot, therefore, go floating around in some "la-la" frame of mind. So, what does meditation really provide us? What if, we are able to not only reach our personal meditative goals, but also see the growth and change that is actively occurring?

If I, personally, were to have a personal growth goal, it would be about connecting with more peace and fulfillment in my life. So, how do I achieve that? How can my meditative practice help me to get them pragmatically? I want to be able to do it in a targeted way and not just left to the winds of fate...but how?

It seems like, even after thousands of years of teachings by enlightened beings, we are still living at the whim of our internal baggage. I wanted a practical, accessible meditation technique that worked within my daily life, and that did not entail spending extended time in a forest or ashram—but how? These where the questions I asked myself as I set about trying to create a method for finding more peace and fulfillment in my life—which, once developed, I called Applied Meditation.

What is Applied Meditation? I mean actively using our meditative practice to make pragmatic, trackable changes in our lives, rather than only passively by just doing the practice of meditation.

Many years ago I was in a very difficult place in my life. I had just been laid off from my engineering job, and needed to get my stress levels back down to a normal level. (The fact that I even had these thoughts about stress levels is a damning statement about how we are living our lives today.) I had heard that meditation was a way to lower stress levels, so I started my quest to learn how to do it.

Never quite sure what a successful meditation was supposed to "feel" like, I tried several techniques to experience that "magic feeling" that everybody seems to talk about. The problem was that I had no idea what I was supposed to be feeling. Was it "floaty?" Present (whatever that is supposed to feel like)? Peaceful? Calm? Still (which, for the life of me, I had no idea what was supposed to feel like)? So I went back to the basics, to find a practice that held my attention enough that my mind did not keep wandering off. In this case it was focusing on a candle flame. After trying this for a couple of weeks I noticed that I felt very different inside after meditating. I wanted to understand what it was that I was feeling, so I sat down and asked myself how would I describe how I feel inside to someone else. By asking myself that question it helped me to get a more tangible connection to the feelings. I avoided words like "good," "nice," "better," and "relaxed," as they were too generic and could easily apply to how I felt with a tub of ice cream or a bar of chocolate. After experiencing the feelings over several practices I concluded that I felt peaceful, calm, and...there was another feeling, what was it? My mind was not racing; in fact, it felt like someone had just pushed the pause button on it. I asked myself, how does my mind feel? What does "pause" feel like? As I sat there trying to pick a word to describe the feeling, it suddenly hit me—still! Wow, this is what stillness felt like! I then wondered, had I just succeeded in meditating "correctly?" I thought about it for a bit, and then decided that it did not matter—the point was that I felt as though I was in a much better place with my feelings. I wanted a catchy phrase to describe these feelings so that in my journal I could refer to them without having to keep writing out all three descriptions. I thought about it for a few days and came up the phrase, "the Meditative Feeling." (Yes, that was as good a description as any, I thought.)

So, I now had a technique that helped me to create this new "space" inside myself where I was more at peace with myself and the world around me. However, I noticed that after a short time I went back into my old, discordant mode of how I thought, behaved, and felt. At this point I wondered, what was the point of meditating? Sure, I felt good while I was doing it, but it only lasted for a short time. So what was the point of it all? Then, the logical, engineering part of me came to the fore. I thought to myself, what if I were to treat the Meditative Feeling as a platform for change? I knew that while I was experiencing the Meditative Feeling my perceptions of myself and the world were less judgmental, and that I felt more resilient against the chaotic, tidal flow of the world around me. There must be a way that I can use this feeling to make active, tangible changes in my life rather than the passive ones that would come from just doing the practice of meditation.

There had to be a way that I could use this Meditative Feeling. I just had to sit down, contemplate a bit, and logically figure it out. These became my first few steps into the development of the Applied Meditation process.

The first consideration was how to maintain the feeling—that is, the Meditative Feeling—outside of the practice. If not, all I'd be doing was trying to change but doing so with my old discordant thoughts and feelings, which would feel the same as trying to push wet spaghetti up a hill. So, I needed a place and time when I was not having to rush to do anything after the practice. I decided that mediating on a morning at home was a good starting point. I would practice for ten minutes, first thing, and then get on with the rest of my day. I did not need any longer, as I could create the Meditative Feeling within that time. However, if I wanted to stay longer with the feeling, I would just stay there and enjoy it, but the primary goal was to simply create it. I made it into a game. Do my practice and then get ready for work or do a few odd jobs around the apartment, checking in with myself to see if I still felt the Meditative Feeling. In the beginning it would only be for a few minutes. I would write this down in my journal, and over a period of several weeks, noticed I was holding the feeling for almost ninety minutes. This was fun!

It was all well and good holding the feeling while in the comfort of my apartment, but I needed to be able to hold it when the world was getting in my face, whether that was on a busy freeway or some place else. I called this aspect "building my resilience" of the Meditative Feeling. I now had three stages to develop with respect to my meditation practice: Create, Hold, and Build. Create the meditative feeling, hold it outside of the practice, and build its resilience to the outside world.

My next step was to figure out how to build up the resilience without falling flat on my face all the time and getting disillusioned. The solution came to me by accident. I went into a shop that just had negative energy in it. I did not realize at the time, since I had been so used to going there that the feeling of negative energy was "normal" for me. On this particular occasion I had just meditated and was in my Meditative Feeling when I went in, and after only a few moments I felt that the Meditative Feeling had been knocked out of me. Initially I was a bit put out that it had happened, but then suddenly, in a moment of inspiration, I realized that I could use this place as a training ground to build up the resilience of my Meditative Feeling. I would meditate, go into the place, and then start to time how long it took for the Meditative Feeling to dissipate. I would consciously try to hold on to it by checking that the feeling was still there. It became a new game. After a few weeks I was up to thirty minutes, and then an hour, and then, very quickly, the entire time that I spent there.

After discovering how to build up the resilience I then wanted to try it out on other situations in my life. I needed to decide how to take baby steps with this technique. I knew that if I tried to hold the feeling in a very challenging place or situation that I would fail and get discouraged. I had to look at all the places and situations that would occur and order them from high to low. The lowest few I started to call, "the low-hanging fruit." I then split up the remaining challenges into "medium" and "high" fruits. I then worked on holding the Meditative Feeling for about three of the low fruits. The amazing thing was that, not only did the feeling change how I perceived these situations, it also altered how I behaved in them (and, as a consequence, how any other involved people behaved). It was almost like magic. In keeping my inner peace, I felt as though, while I was a part of it, life it was flowing around me and instead of knocking me around.

One trick I used in helping me to be specific with clarifying my goals for change was the acronym I had used in my time in corporate America, which was SMART. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. Using that as my guide, I could pragmatically set goals for changes in my life and see them happening. It was amazing. Here is an example of how might work. Suppose I get angry during my daily commute to and from work, with all the traffic on the roads, and since I am always, while behind my own wheel, giving other drivers "advice" (which they will never hear) on how they can improve their driving. (I'm confident I'm not alone in this habit.) My SMART goals would be:

Specific: Not to vocalise my advice at least twice during the ten times I am commuting (I might still get angry, so let's take it in baby steps).
Measurable: This would be measured by whether I opened my mouth to comment on other drivers.
Achievable: Yes, I am capable of doing this. It is not beyond my ability, unlike, say, becoming an astronaut by next week.
Realistic: It is realistic to achieve the goal within the time that I have allocated.
Timely: I am going to give myself five days to achieve this goal: Monday to Friday.

I realized that, after a few weeks, using my meditative practice to make trackable changes in my life was working. As previously noted, I decided to call this practice Applied Meditation. Why Applied Meditation? I studied physics while in college; while there, I had classes in both Pure and Applied Mathematics, with Applied Mathematics being more related to everyday applications. Therefore, in a similar naming fashion, Applied Meditation would be more closely related to our everyday activities.

So, how can you, too, turn meditation into something that can help you make changes in your everyday life? Start by finding a meditation practice that easily (you should be able to create it with five minutes on an average day) creates the feelings of peace, calm, and stillness within you. While in a safe place (one where you are not being distracted by having to talk or listening to others), keeping checking in with yourself on whether you are still feeling those feelings and have fun tracking, perhaps in a journal, how long you can hold the feelings. Watch as the time increases from week to week. While you are doing this, create a list of your low, medium, and high "fruits." I'd recommend not trying to tackle any of the "fruits" until you are able to hold the Meditative Feeling for about a couple of hours. You need to prove to yourself that you can hold it outside of the practice for that long.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2019. All rights reserved.

I'm a practicing psychic and am wondering if I will ever find true love. I am already reluctant to come out of the closet with certain people, for as you know, society in general is critical, fearful and skeptical of anything psychic. While not all of society is like this, a good majority rejects anything dealing with psychic phenomena. I try to always be honest in my dealings with others, but as soon as I reveal what I am and what I do to earn money, I get shunned by men. It can be really painful, and it causes me to doubt myself and my attractiveness. If I can't be up front about who and what I am in an intimate, loving relationship, then who can I be up front with? I would like to marry one day, but I can't be sure if I will ever find a man who will accept me for me. Reading for myself about this is tricky; I'm unable to get clear answers because I can't get out of my own way. I will be 40 next year. Am I destined to be a spinster? I'm a Sagittarius.

Lynx

Astrea:

You're in a situation that many professional psychic readers have experienced. Telling someone you've been dating or that you're beginning to date that you are psychic really does cull out the losers in a hurry, for no one who is going to misbehave wants to be with someone who can read them. Many people also have the big misconception that psychics are mind readers. Oh! If only that were true!

People who read for others for a living are notorious for not being able to get out of their own way. Discernment is sometimes the most difficult of all psychic skills to develop. Forty is the age when most of us achieve discernment these days. Be happy you haven't made a dreadful error before.

I want to take this opportunity to say that waiting until you are 40 does not mean that you'll be a spinster! From one Sagittarius to another, I can tell you that I goofed up plenty before I was your age, and being psychic didn't seem to help me in my own romantic relationships.

Does being psychic exact payment? Of course it does. It can make us more aware of others, but it usually doesn't make us that much more in tune with the people we LOVE. This is why I never read for my family or closest friends. (Sometimes they insist, but they're usually very sorry they did!) There are personal, private things they don't want YiaYia to know, and I respect that and butt out!

It might offend my pals in law enforcement to know that I think having a relationship with a psychic is sort of like having one with a police officer. People who enter relationships with us feel obligated to behave or risk being found out.

Coming out of the closet is a good analogy too. Though some of my gay friends might take issue with this comparison, it is nevertheless what it feels like when you have to admit to the person you're in love with what it is you do for a living. There's no way I know to put someone at ease who has recently discovered that you're reading for a living. Either they can take it or they can't. Most people can get used to it, and the ones who reject us because of it aren't worth being with anyway, for they have things to hide!

Sagittarius, I know you'll find that person you're seeking in the next year. How do I know? I'm psychic! I also know that the 40th year is the most important year of a Sag's life when it comes to relationships.

That person will manifest for you sometime shortly after the first of the year, so you can start looking forward to a loving, lifelong relationship with someone who is honest and upright enough to be with you without fear of what you might discover.

*****

Susyn:

I agree that it can be challenging to be a psychic, especially when it comes to the dating scene. I carried these same ideas for years myself, and it seemed that any potential relationships ended almost immediately once a man discovered what I did for a living.

It is important that you remain true to yourself and continue to make your living in a profession that feeds your soul. Trust me: the man you are supposed to spend the rest of your life with will not have a problem with your career choice.

For years, I tried different methods to bypass what I thought was the problem. I tried dating men who also worked in the field of metaphysics, but to no avail. I found different names for my career, such as metaphysical consultant or counselor. The men I connected with were still put off by my work, even though I had created, literally from scratch, a lucrative and rewarding career.

Over time, I came to discover the truth: that what I did for a living was not the problem. The reason I couldn't find a long-term relationship had less to do with my work and more to do with my approach. This proved to be true when I found my life partner, a nuclear physics engineer, whose own career is based in science, fact and tangible proof. Never in my wildest dreams did I believe that we could form a partnership, but we could not be any closer or happier.

First, let go of the idea that your career is what is preventing you from having a loving partnership. When we truly fall in love, there is nothing about us that can put the other person off. The key is learning to create enough attraction and connection to experience love first, before we reveal too much of ourselves.

Because of your past experiences, you may be sending out defensive energy or setting yourself up to fail before you even get to know the other person. Though I donít recommend you hide what you do for a living, you may be going into details too quickly or revealing more than you need to at the start.

If you are serious about finding a life partner, I recommend a book called The Rules by Ellen Fein. Though it is slanted towards finding a husband, this book contains some basic truths and information about men that we women need to know. Once I read this book and started practicing these tenets, never again was anyone I dated uncomfortable with what I did for a living.

Give it a try. It will shift your awareness, affirm that your career is not what is preventing you from having a loving relationship, and give you tools to make the most of your dating experiences instead of limiting them.

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.