Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Merger Reminder: Moonwalk and Moongram



Dear Radical Readers,

Do you miss the Moonwalk posts? Just a reminder that the Moonwalks and my New Moongram monthly e-newsletter are now merged. All it takes to get my New Moongram, with many of the features from the old Moonwalks, is to sign up at the top of the sidebar. My mailing list is used with the integrity of a Radical Virgo. Colorful e-mail news and Moon commentary is sent monthly. There are only rare posts in-between (one so far in a year). Your name is never sold or shared unless you are specifically asked—so far, never. It’s easy to subscribe or unsubscribe.

The monthly New Moongram contains these features:

  • Date and time of the New Moon with link to translate to your time zone, if needed
  • A link to a previous post where the current Moon sign is discussed in depth
  • Behind-the-scenes news at The Radical Virgo
  • A recap of the monthly posts on my blog, in case you missed any
  • Updates on my projects, such as my Chiron research and book in progress
  • Chart of the New Moon with commentary on how these energies are likely to color your life in the month ahead
  • Information on the Sabian symbol on this New Moon
  • A meditation on this month’s Moon sign
  • Coupons! This month it’s 25% off my favorite reading to do, the astro-tarot. It combines the best of booth tools. These are a "See You in September Special," readings booked and advance-paid during this Leo New Moon cycle, but delivered during September when my schedule reopens.

What are you waiting for? The Moon is calling!

Thanks to all of you who already receive the New Moongram. Welcome in advance to those who join. Find out why I chose that lion sleeping under the Moon for this month’s New Moon mascot.


Warm sun and moonbeams to all,
Joyce

PS - The next New Moongram will go out July 27.


~~~

Photo Credit: The lion and the moon in the fantastic desert 



Saturday, July 23, 2011

Do You Trust Astrology--or Your Gut?


Sirius A, the brightest star in our nighttime sky.




© 2011 by Joyce Mason
All Rights Reserved

A Bigger-Than-the-Sky Post 


When it comes down to a choice of following astrology or my instincts, my answer isn’t always that simple. It isn’t always the same, either.

For instance, I researched a good electional day and timing to launch The Radical Virgo blog. The stars more than delivered. My new venture was successful out the gate, quickly exceeding the traffic on my other blog, where I had labored for over two years for relatively minimal participation. In no time flat, the volume of visits here on The Radical Virgo was five times those on my first blog.

Like a good astrologer and cosmic soldier, I applied electional principles to my first meeting with my childhood sweetheart when we reconnected after 36 years. I lived in Sacramento; he lived in Dallas. Around Christmas 1996, we knew seeing each other in person was the natural next step—but Mercury Retrograde was coming up. (I joked that he’d better get used to the stars and scheduling!) Waiting till January 18, 1997 paid off. There was an impressive kite pattern in our “first remeeting” chart, a Jupiter, Sun and Neptune conjunction—and a Grand Air Trine between Moon, Uranus and Mars. We alternated traveling between our cities four times from January to April. On his final visit in April, he said he wanted to come back to stay. We were married the next year—on another carefully considered electional day, balancing parameters of romance and practicality (two Virgos with Venus in Libra). We wanted to get him on my health benefits before his ran out from his last job.

Two years ago, I had another dilemma, speaking of health. I had to have some rather delicate eye surgery. Like most physicians, my ophthalmologist only does surgeries on certain days of the week—in her case, Thursdays. She wanted to do my surgery on July 23, 2009. From an electional perspective, it didn’t look so hot. In fact, some of my astrologer friends were downright worried—one in particular, an individual who’s opinion I highly respect. Trouble is, I couldn’t find another Thursday in the foreseeable future that would work any better. Many of them were worse. I wasn’t sure what to do.

So, I did what I always do when cogitating gets me “know where”. I got quiet, went within, and got a clear answer: I should go for July 23. The more I sat with it, the more my gut instincts said, keep that date.

I grew increasingly more comfortable with my decision, but I was very guarded about sharing what was going on, especially on the public wall. Among people I trusted to tell, I insisted that no one send me worried energy or have any vision except an excellent outcome. This was challenging with one of my relatives who tends to gasp and go to the worst place in her mind when any health situation arises. “Please don’t do that” in a loving way worked!

Once I surrendered to this cognitive dissonance between my belief in astrology and my instincts, the universe rewarded me with a little help from one of my Twitter friends. A devotee of the channeled teachings of Lazaris, she told me in a series of tweets about his teachings regarding the most powerful day of any year—July 23! Since I talked about the lost civilization of Atlantis in the last post, now it’s Lemuria’s turn:

While Lemurians were present in your world, the Lemurian year revolved around Sirius. The first day of the Lemurian year began on what you now call July 23rd with the Rise of Sirius. That is the day when Sirius rises on your horizon just before the Sun. This brilliant light is immediately swamped, swallowed up by the fires of the Sun, yet an opening has begun. The Rise of Sirius begins a 55-day cycle — July 23 to September 15 — when the Vortex is opened and more fully and widely than at other times. The universe is renewed. It is a time of beginning more profound than spring.




It calmed my nerves to know that in some system of cosmic thinking my instincts were validated. The surgery was successful; however, in fairness to those who worried about it, there was a complication. With gentle patience and a conservative stance between my doctor and myself to trust it would resolve itself; it did.  All’s well that ends well.

There’s nothing for me that overrides the guidance system built into our bodies. Instinct and intuitions steers us in the right direction when we learn to listen.

Happy July 23 and opening of the Sirius Vortex. The fixed star Sirius is at 14 Cancer 05. Where does it fit into your chart?

I thought you’d like to know about this potent day of new beginnings. I plan to do something special, and I’d love to hear your Comments about other times you’ve thrown astrological caution to the wind. How did it work out?

In my case, going to the dogs (Dog Star) was a good thing … and at least so far (hold that vision!), he’s not a seeing eye dog, either.

~~~


Photo Credit: Spacetelescope.org


More on Sirius the Dog Star








Monday, July 18, 2011

The Great Flow Charters in the Sky




A Bigger-Than-the-Sky Post 
on Karma and Reincarnation

© 2010 - 2011 by Joyce Mason
All Rights Reserved


Like everything in life, astrology has a bigger context—a perspective that’s even bigger than the sky. This is the second in a series of periodic posts, not specific to astrology, but to the larger issues of why we’re here: the laws of dynamic attraction, soul evolution, the workings of karma and reincarnation, just to name a few. Some of these articles were originally written for my spirited living blog, Hot Flashbacks, Cool Insights. I suspect many Radical readers will resonate to these posts and wanted to share them with you. I think they fit right into the Radical Virgo blog’s habit of making round-trips from Earth to Sky and back—and to the idea that there are even bigger universes to explore—and to which we also belong.

~Joyce

I first became involved in metaphysics in 1977. Little did I know, then, what a red-letter year it was! On November 1 of that year, the planetary body Chiron was discovered. Chiron would ultimately become my specialty as an astrologer, but not until we “met” eleven years later.

Another turning-point iconic event happened that changed the thinking of many people that year—the release of the first Star Wars movie. There’s nothing like cinema to convey cultural values and change them. Suddenly, we were saying, “May the Force be with you,” acknowledging that there was one joining power we could tap into. We were spouting Yoda-isms, words to live by from the tiny green wizened one.

“No! Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.” ~Yoda, Star Wars

My intro to these subjects, as I’ve mentioned many times before, came from psychic and meditation teacher Betty Bethards and
Unity Church. However, my own cultural context influenced the way I saw what would soon become a melting pot of ideas from different religions and traditions. Take karma for example.


While karma has many meanings and spins, they roughly parallel the idea from the Judeo-Christian West, “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.” However, it adds the idea that you may be reaping your crop through continuous lifetimes.



What Are the Mechanics?

I was one of those overly curious kids who asked my father why so often, he wanted to invent a why swatter. When I received new information, sometimes before my physical and emotional maturity to handle it, I would always get hung-up on the mechanics. For instance, when I first heard about sex and how people “do it,” I had to get out two of my dolls, imagining the male to have an anatomically correct appendage, and experiment with how that might work logistically. I didn’t get it. Grown-ups must be acrobats! At least I get points for an inquiring mind.

The same thing happened to me with karma. Once I heard that you often go through many lifetimes with the same cast of characters, repeating similar scenes until you complete your “business,” I had to figure out a way to wrap my brain around something so complex. Here’s what I came up with. Maybe it’s a metaphor; maybe I’m channeling something. At any rate, it works for me as a touchstone for organizing my thoughts around karma and reincarnation.


The Great Flow Charters in the Sky

Remembering that I first imagined this idea in the days before social networking and many tools we take for granted nowadays, I envision that each person has a “team” of advisors, a karma committee if you will, helping him or her to map out his/her next incarnation for maximum learning. This is, essentially, what Betty taught us.

Considering my Catholic background and being raised by an Italian mama, I saw my committee as consisting of handsome young Italian-American men in blue pinstripe suits, sort of a white-collar version of the entourage of Tony Soprano. Only better looking. Only angels. They didn’t make their bones; they made their wings. Bad guys gone good, now rewarded with the important job of helping others even their own scores in their multiple lives.

They’re in a “peace room” of sorts, the heavenly version of a war room where strategies are plotted before the plotted arise and are planted on earth again, body and soul together, one more time. They have to figure out how this complex of people will meet up and have all the experiences they need with all the right people from their past karmic strings of events. What a job!

I envision several flip charts. On them, they are drawing complex flow charts. Each chart stands for an individual life. Imagine the number of charts in a room in order to dovetail all of a person’s primary encounters with the people who are their sources of “unfinished business.” I can barely conceive of the complexity of this. If I had been a come-lately to these ideas, I’d probably imagine some sort of computer program. But I’d lose something important with a more modern image.


Magic Marker Music

 I’m no stranger to karmic connections and karmic moments. When they happen, I can hear in my mind the squeak of the Magic Markers the Flow Charters use, their writing tools dancing furiously on those flip charts. I imagine the complex strategy it took for all the planets to align and the people nudged to get this moment to line up.

Example: Recently, a good friend of my ex-husband, “Pearlie,” was surfing the Net looking for information on the potent summer eclipses and current rock ‘n’ rollin’ in the sky. She came across my name in her Google search and wondered if I was the same Joyce Mason who was “
Laramie’s” ex. She e-mailed me, and one thing led to another. We are both into astrology and poetry and had lots to talk about. I hadn’t spoken to Laramie since ’07 and gave her his contact info. Soon we were all e-mailing in a big chain of healing and helpfulness. In my conversations with Pearlie, she helped me revision my relationship with my ex, so wrought with past pain, I dismissed the good I got from him. “Talking” with Larry by e-mail, I could see he was the most healed ever, in a good relationship, and this helped me to let go of the last of any beating up on myself up for marrying him. I saw it was all good, even if it took decades to “get it.” What a gift!


The Mystique of Karma

Speaking of husbands, I recently had cause to discuss with another friend from faraway what a minefield it is to offer opinions on someone else’s marriage, no matter how close the friendship. What Anne said is both commonsense and so profound:

Ultimately, what's between us and our husbands is part of that mysterious alchemy that no other person can ever fully know (including us, some of the time!)


Wow! Dare I say, the same goes for karma—or maybe it goes for karma foremost, because what marriage would not be a karmic relationship? I suspect that people have been incarnating far too long on the earth plane for first-time encounters. That’s my humble opinion, anyway, while clearly understanding that time is a human-made concept.

The resonance of karma is what pulls people together, I believe. We recognize each other energetically. Astrologer Barbara Hand Clow believes that we retain our same Ascendant in our birth chart lifetime after lifetime. One thing the Ascendant or rising sign has to do with is how we look. In other words, she believes we retain looks similar enough from one incarnation to the next to be recognized by our karma mates. Even though that’s a radical idea, if feels right to me.


How Karmic?

Karma is a matter of degree, but I think that it’s simple to tell how hot it is by the intensity of the magnetism when you first meet someone. It could be a “romantic” relationship, a friendship, or any form of bonding. There’s a strong pull-in and a sense of rediscovery. It’s like when you haven’t seen an old friend for years, and you pick right up where you left off. Only you don’t consciously “know” this person yet in this lifetime, so you can’t figure it out by “normal” logic.


Details Please! Past Life Regression

I’ve had several past live regressions (PLR) in my day, a form of self-exploration that I would recommend that you try only with a trusted practitioner by way of a personal referral. I learned amazing things, including my role as an astrologer in Atlantis and how much trouble it got me into, which explains why I’ve been somewhat resistive to reclaiming that vocation in my current lifetime.

I know that my husband, Tim, was also my husband in an Atlantean lifetime. (It was a long civilization, and I think I had more than one time ‘round in that lost world). He took care of me when I was disabled, and now I am returning the favor in helping him navigate his health issues in our current life.

The karma between my birth and adoptive families was explained so well by one of my PLRs, I no longer wonder why it had to happen that my birth mom gave me up. It was inevitable, a role reversal with my adoptive mom in a prior incarnation.

Through love, through friendship, a heart lives more than one life. ~Anais Nin

What If You Don’t Believe in Reincarnation?

You don’t have to believe in reincarnation for this concept to work. In today’s world, life is so fast and jam-packed with experiences, we live numerous lifetimes in any given incarnation. I guess I’m the poster girl for meeting up with people from my past lives and passions within this life … and bringing the relationships to some sort of positive balance or conclusion. I find myself talking about that a lot lately, so it’s obviously something I feel compelled to share as a major cool insight pattern at this time.

Completing circles—that’s what it’s all about. Balancing the favors, love, good and bad feelings and coming to a higher understanding of the essence of each individual on your Great Flow Chart in the Sky.

And, of course, we can see a lot of it coming in the ultimate cosmic flow chart of our astrology charts, especially when we start comparing them.

I don’t know about the sound of one hand clapping, but I do love the sound of one marker squeaking.

~~~

Photo Credit: WHITEBOARD by Tuulijumala | Dreamstime.com



Related post: Astrology and Past Lives by Lana Wooster

Monday, July 11, 2011

Your Cosmic Tractor Beam

A Bigger-Than-the-Sky Post


© 2009 - 2011 by Joyce Mason
All Rights Reserved


Like everything in life, astrology has a bigger context—a perspective that’s even bigger than the sky. This is the first in a series of periodic posts, not specific to astrology, but to the larger issues of why we’re here: the laws of dynamic attraction, soul evolution, the workings of karma and reincarnation, just to name a few. Some of these articles were originally written for my spirited living blog, Hot Flashbacks, Cool Insights. I suspect many Radical readers will resonate to these posts and wanted to share them with you. I think they fit right into the Radical Virgo blog’s habit of making round-trips from Earth to Sky and back—and to the idea that there are even bigger universes to explore—and to which we also belong.

~Joyce


T
here is a law of dynamic attraction in the universe where like attracts like. If being positive didn’t simply feel good on its own, this magnetic quality of “good draws good” is the other reason for adopting a permanently upbeat attitude.

I want to take it a step further. Being yourself—authentically you—is one of the most difficult challenges of being human. No man, woman, or child is an island. We need to belong, and the truly happy person has not just friends and family, but community. All these levels of connection are essential to joy.

Yet we so often give parts of ourselves away to meet the energy of others in the middle, like politicians who tone down their stances and beliefs in order to appeal to the most voters. Our blending behavior creates a bigger zone of safety and acceptance in our minds. But does it really?

Holding Back: A Survival Strategy

I feel especially qualified to talk about holding back your true energy or resonance to blend in. I’ve been trained to do it since childhood. I was adopted when I was three weeks old, and my parents were very different from me in a number of essential ways. We just weren’t wired the same. Yet, they were so loving; I didn’t even realize it until I grew up! Mom and Dad made me feel like I truly I belonged, and I was willing to sacrifice some of my individuality for that sweet prize. As I started coming into my own in my twenties, I was stunned to find out that my way of being, based on their programming, was far different from who I really am. My poor mother didn’t know what hit when my move to California, the women’s movement, the ‘70s and my first group therapy experience all conspired to steal her daughter right out from under her—or the one she thought she knew and had molded.

To be fair, my adoptive parents’ differences from me were also a big plus. I am naturally a non-stop thinker—very mental. They were down-to-earth, practical, and totally heart people. My development would have been lopsided, had I grown up in my birth family. My birth mom made my constant cogitation look like child’s play! (I was reunited with my family of origin in my late thirties, and I have a perspective that not many people enjoy of being able to see which parts of me came from nurture rather than nature.)

Still, “not being you” can harm you in the end.

Drawbacks of the Quick-Change Artist

With all my talents for blending in, I had a knack for finding the wrong relationships, whether friends or prospective mates. There was nothing wrong with these individuals—or me. We were just mismatched at an energetic and evolutionary level. I was not putting out who I really am, but rather, morphing myself, like a chameleon, to fit the energy of the people I wanted to please or whose lives I wanted to be a part of. Frankly, I didn’t think there was anyone like me out there! Never having met people on my beam, I didn’t believe they existed.

What I didn’t understand: I could not draw to me anyone like me because I wasn’t being me.

"Banding” Together

Ultimately, I learned that as energy beings, we emit a frequency of our true selves that is like a radio wave. When we’re “on,” being our essential selves, people on the same bandwidth are drawn to us. When we are broadcasting our frequency, others on the same or nearby frequencies pick up on it and hone onto our signal like a tractor beam.

This all happens in the ethers. It’s invisible—you can’t see or hear it while it’s happening—then presto! Some new person pops into your life who’s an obvious member of your soul family. We hear the expression “putting yourself out there.” That’s what it takes to make energy-based matches with like-minded, compatible people. Only it’s not so much a matter of pushing your energy outward. It’s more about being centered in who you are and allowing the universe to draw in the relationships you need.

It’s so human to make the same mistakes over again. If we’re growing, we make them at higher levels, getting the same lesson more clearly each time. I still morph myself—sometimes all but turn myself inside out—to fit in. It often happens unconsciously, when more kindred spirits aren’t available to play or when I don’t know a person or group well enough yet to realize we’re on a different frequency. Then, of course, there are all the many things we can want from someone or a group of some ones that interfere with being in integrity: love, sex, career advancement, fun.

Recently, I became aware that I was being a contortion artist in some relationships and had to reassess my participation. When I decided to let go of what was becoming negative for me, draining, and far from an energetic match, I created the usual void left by surrender.

While I was still making the decision to let go of my latest energetic mismatches, someone literally honed in on me when I returned to my own center and self. Out of the blue, I got an e-mail from a reader of one of my astrology articles that I had written 17 years prior, a perennial favorite. Soon we were e-mailing like mad and could not believe how much we think alike and share the same views of Spirit, the world, and how to live in it. It was simply exhilarating, and a true testimony to why it is so important to be true to yourself. It takes courage and trust. It’s worth it! This “chance” encounter was the catalyst for creating this blog just after Spring Equinox 2009, named after the article that had touched him so deeply, “The Radical Virgo.”

Energetic Shift

In the larger sense, the shift we all need to make is to do less and be more. We are called human beings, not human doings. While I know the importance of frequent meditation—how it strengthens our energy field and helps us resonate to our core selves, I still have a hard time with the discipline of doing it. I even try to “do” when the practice calls for me just to “be” there. Show up, sit in my meditation spot, and close my eyes. What could be simpler? But “human doings” can’t seem to accept that our value is inherent. Too easy? How the human mind loves to complicate things.

If you’re a helper and a person of compassion, my closing thought is for you. It’s an expression I’ve heard about what it is to really help others—and ourselves.

It’s not what you do; it’s who you are.

~~~

Photo Credit: BEAM © magann - Fotolia.com

Thanks to Leslie Smith of Inner Sanctuary blog for first publication of this article.


Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Buzzin' and Rompin’ ‘Round the Zodiac with Auntie Joyce, AKA Ms. Do Bee

 
© 2011 by Joyce Mason
All Rights Reserved

When Auntie Joyce was very small, there was a wonderful kids’ show called Romper Room. This educational offering on early TV (1953)had a wonderful character called Mr. Do Bee. This oversized Bumble Bee taught children how to behave--the do’s and don’ts of manners. Auntie suspects the inspiration for this post came from too many screaming children on recent air travel or from wearing too much yellow. In either case, she hopes you enjoy her turn at being Ms. Do Bee on a romp around the zodiac. We’ll start with the Don’t’s and end on a high note with the Do’s.

Don’t Bee

 Aries -  Don’t Raminisce.

Taurus -  Don’t let the plod thicken.

Gemini- Don’t Twinch.

Cancer- Don’t bake Crab cakes.

Leo - Don’t let the Sun catch you crying.

VIRGO -  Don’t give others the chaff.

LIBRA -  Don’t work for Scale.

SCORPIO -  Don’t be possessive, or we just won’t gel, us.

SAGITTARIUS – Don’t be arrow-minded.

CAPRICORN -  Don’t miss your Saturn.

AQUARIUS – Don’t weigh in; way out.

PISCES – Don’t ignore what Confusion say.

Do Be

 
ARIES – If the doorbell rings too often, do ram-a-dam-a-ding dong.

TAURUS – Do your Venus in blue jeans.

GEMINI – Do be a Gem.

CANCER – Do fly to the Moon.

LEO – Do be a royal mane.

VIRGO -  Do fuss your budget.

LIBRA - Do "Be Mine."

SCORPIO – Do listen to your in-stings.

SAGITTARIUS – Do jump on Jupiter.

CAPRICORN – Do goat to bat for your employees.    

AQUARIUS – Do bathe in water bare.

PISCES – For some of you, do use your fog lights. For others, doobie, doobie, do.

~~~


Photo Credit: © bluedarkat - Fotolia.com




Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Last Bell for Chiron 101 Summer School!


Dear Radical Readers,

If you’ve been thinking about attending my upcoming Chiron 101 Summer School, don’t wait any longer! Admissions close at midnight Pacific Daylight time on July 9, 2011. We already have a attendees lined up from across the US, and from Europe and Australia. I am looking forward to playing Chiron in this e-mail format Mt. Pelion, the place the mythical centaur cranked out heroes in ancient Greece. This is a wonderful group of people, as told by the bios they’re sharing with the class. It’s not too late to join the party.

As a special incentive, here’s a $14-off coupon for anyone who already belongs to—or joins—my monthly new Moongram e-mail list.

I’m starting a new diet that involves eating a lot of fruit, so send me a virtual apple for the teacher. My favorite kind are Fuji. Instead of the 3 R’s (reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic), when it comes to Chiron, we’ll be exploring SAM: sociology, astronomy/astrology and mythology.

If you have to sit out this class, I’ll likely repeat it sometime in 2012—and I’ll be sure, in-between, to share how this first experiment in learning goes. I am very excited about this adventure!

Running to get to class on time,
Joyce