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March 25 through March 31, 2024

Monday opens with a Libra full Moon/lunar eclipse, starting a two-week cycle of regrouping and reassessing where we want to place our focus for the next six months. Eclipses come in twos, and the solar eclipse will occur on April 8th, marking a profound shift in our goals and outlook. On both Monday and Tuesday we'll focus on balance and equality in all we do. Wednesday the Moon moves into Scorpio, carrying an intense focus that allows us to take care of business and tend to the demands of our lives. Things lighten up on Friday when the Moon moves into Sagittarius for the remainder of the week and encourages us to socialize, have some fun and reconnect with loved ones near and far. This is also a great time to update your social media and backup your computers and phones to the cloud, as Mercury will be slowing down to turn retrograde next week!

Quick Ways to Connect with Nature at Home, by Jessica Marie Baumgartner

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

The natural world thrives. It is balanced, clean, and wild. Humanity has lived at one with its surroundings before, and I believe it can do so again, but modern society moves so fast that many people find it difficult to connect with the land.

When we're working to make ends meet, caring for family members, or looking out for friends and somehow trying to find our place in the world, life's natural rituals often fall behind. We forget the birds' song. The swish of the breeze in the trees doesn't even register. The buzz of modern technology takes over that place in our lives and we must work harder to listen to the voice of creation singing through rain, snow, and hail.

It's easy to feel left behind. Catching up sometimes seems impossible, but it's not as complicated as climbing Mount Everest. We do not have to venture out into the wild for weeks at a time to regain our sense of self and reconnect with nature (though, if you ever get the chance, grasp it with both hands!).

The days of religious figures and mystics abandoning their people for the secluded voices of the gods/universe are past. Our power and energies grow best when we integrate that part of ourselves into society and live out our "holy" quests for meaning, purpose, and love in simple daily actions.

Some pray in temples, others travel great distances to find what is no further than their doorstep. Our connections to our existence are not only found under these special circumstances.

Not everyone has the means to give up everything and wander freely?especially with the recent events of the world. Getting "back to basics" is the perfect way to strengthen our spiritual ties. When bringing ourselves down to the earth and remembering to focus on the physical elements that make everything, our internal fires ignite passion and guide us through fate.

That is the entire premise of my latest book, The Magic of Nature: Meditations & Spells to Find Your Inner Voice. Nature gives us everything we need. It hosts the most powerful magic, but it is up to each individual to explore their relationship to that energy.

For anyone not knowing where to start, or those who are well-versed but just need more focus, support, and wish to expand on their practices, I developed this book from my daily and seasonal work. I was raised poor and pride myself on "making do with what I have." Many of my exercises require little to no materials. It seems to me that ingenuity is more often found in resourcefulness than a cluttered altar.

However one works, I wish everyone all the best, and have included three simple practices that will not only strengthen one's bonds to nature, but also to their inner-voice—that instinctual magic resting inside our subconscious.

Spring Window Meditation

1. Sit near an open window or sunbeam coming through the glass.
2. Feel the air's energy?how it revives your skin and strengthens inner power.
3. Breathe deeply. With each breath, rock back and forth.
4. Relax your mind and close your eyes. Explore the images that materialize.
5. See yourself in relation to these visualizations. Where are you going? How far have you come? Are you sad or happy? What are you seeking?
6. Follow these questions through the trails of thought.
7. Let the air guide you. Remain conscious of yourself in relation to the light and air. Feel the pulse of life rushing through your body and how it matches the pace of your meditation.
8. Now, open your eyes and look out the window. Really see beyond where you sit and extend your energies.
9. Bow to the answers that greet you. Continue your day with a stronger purpose.

Porch, Patio, or Doorstep Greeting

1. Go outside and stand before your doorway. Doorways host a special power.
2. Turn and face the door as if you are a guest about to knock. Focus on the air surrounding you. Block out everything else.
3. Rest your palms on the door and closer your eyes. Think of what home means?how it protects, secures, and enhances life.
4. Visualize life without a home. How the land would look without the structure. Feel the energies that flow between yourself and your dwelling.
5. Now turn to face the outside world. Whether a road, garden, other homes or structures stretch before you, focus on the plant life and creatures that have adapted their wild ways to live alongside your domesticated structure.
6. Let their companionship strengthen your energies. Close your eyes. Feel the warmth inside and push it out into the surrounding area. Let the power grow, flow, and reach out.
7. Breathe deeply and bow your head. Now gaze back at the world ready for whatever the day brings.

Backyard/Garden Connection

1. Fill a bowl with water and bring it to your garden or yard. (If you do not have a yard or garden, do this at a park or common ground.) Sit on the ground or by a patch of flowers/plants with it. Place your fingertips on the surface of the water and feel its energy, its purpose.
2. Now, clear your mind. Focus on your life source. Where does it come from? The head or the heart are most commonly recognizes. Place your hand over that space and plunge the other hand fully in the water.
3. Focus on the link between life and water. Visualize your energies going into the water and returning anew with the ripples.
4. Now place both hands on the ground. Skim fingertips over the soul. Feel its energy, its purpose.
5. Again, clear the mind. Dig with both hands and cover the hand that went underwater as much as you can. Once more, place the hand that did not get submerged over your internal source of energy.
6. Focus on the link between life and the soil. Visualize your energies going into the ground and returning anew.
7. Raise your arms to the sky and close your eyes. Feel the powers combining. Think of your ancestors who lived closer to nature and how their spirits must have felt. Imagine a future where that connection is restores. Visualize your place in that future.
8. Call upon the elements to aid you. Thank the gods/universe for the means.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2021. All rights reserved.

For several years, I've been using horoscope books I bought to calculate my natal chart and those of friends. I have no obvious psychic skills, so I rely on the books' interpretations for the meanings of the planet placements, etc. Sometimes they make sense, and sometimes they don't. Can you give me any advice or recommend a book that would be more helpful? My friends and I do this strictly as entertainment, but it would be lots more fun if we could be a little more accurate.. Thanks for any help you can offer.

- Sue

Dreamchaser:

I've found the easiest way for a layman to read a chart is to break it down bit by bit. When you look at the chart, the upper half signifies the outside world, and the bottom half signifies the inner world.

If most of someone's planets are in the upper part of the chart, then most of the work they are to do in this life is in the outer world. They'll tend to live in the outer world more than they go inside of themselves. On the other hand, if someone's planets are mostly in the lower half, they tend to be introverted, and won't show too much of themselves to the outside world.

Once you've explored the general placement of the planets, start to break down the houses, which are the tiny numbers in each "pie piece" of a chart. Here's a basic overview:

The First House governs physical appearance, the personality and general temperament of the person.
The Second House rules the family survival dynamic and deals with basic security issues.
The Third House deals with brothers, sisters, neighbors and the people one interacts with often.
The Fourth House deals with the influences found in the early home, and the parent who has the greatest influence on us.
The Fifth House deals with fun, games, gambling, playing, acting, drama, theaters, stages, hobbies, and the use or misuse of our creative energies.
The Sixth House deals with our power to assimilate and make order from the information available to us.
The Seventh House shows the influence of our marriage partner or significant other.
The Eighth House shows the influence of our partner's family system.
The Ninth House deals with religion, law, philosophy, higher education, dreams, visions and intuitions.
The Tenth House rules our career, standing and position in the world.
The Eleventh House deals with our hopes, dreams and wishes.
The Twelfth House reveals influences from hospitals, prisons and mental institutions.
Also, houses 1 through 4 are considered personal houses, houses 5 through 8 are considered social houses, and houses 9 through 12 are considered universal houses.

Once you figure out how each house is occupied, then you move to the planets and what each one means in that person's house and chart. All of this information regarding houses and planets can also be found online at a number of sites. I should note that I am no astrology expert myself. I'm sure there are lots of helpful books out there; I'm just not familiar with them. Because this is all very complicated, I recommend letting a professional do charts for you and your friends.

I wish you unlimited learning!

*****

Astrea:

A few years ago, I bought a copy of a big purple book called, The Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need. It isn't! It's huge, confusing, and has a lot of bad information in it. I don't see how anyone could use something like that - let alone ANY book or combination of books - to interpret a chart. Since you've asked, however, I do often recommend Sydney Omar's astrology books.

Like most psychic stuff, astrology can be pretty subjective. Most of the astrologers I know learn how to read charts from all sorts of different sources. We don't rely on books to get our answers; we rely on years of experience and careful mathematic calculations. The art of astrology lies in uncovering the personality of the INDIVIDUAL. No book can do that - they're just too general. It takes time and experience to learn how to interpret the various aspects of anyone's chart.

One of the most important things about astrology is how planets relate to one another within a person's chart. Unfortunately, I don't know any books that will give you that information. While there are some great books about the GENERAL meanings of various aspects of astrology, even the most complete ones can't address the uniqueness of the individual.

Also, you need complete birth information including the time and place of birth to get any kind of accurate read. Since you didn't include where and when you were born in your question, for instance, I'm unable to draw anything more than a very GENERAL chart for you. I can't determine your ascendant, which is the person we PRESENT to others. To me, that's one of the most important aspects in any chart.

I've never seen an astrology book that will compute a chart, either. Fortunately, we have the internet for that. There are several well-known sites that will do that for you for free. When we're armed with a complete chart, books CAN be helpful, but they still don't relate one planet to the other properly. That takes years of practice and lots of personally developed insight.

Like any other metaphysical pursuit, practice will make you better, and the experience you've gained doing this from books will give you a lot of information you CAN use.

Astrology is complicated, and there aren't any quick answers. I've tried the computer programs, and some of them do the math correctly, but some don't. The internet sites seem to be doing a more accurate job of that, as long as you can use a map to locate where the person you're doing the chart for was born. Being "off by a few" doesn't work here; everything MUST be EXACT. You'll find being exact makes a huge difference in your astrological work, especially when it comes to PREDICTING things!

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.