Weekly Oracle Forecast Oct 16-22

OUR VOICE IS OUR GIFT TO OUR COMMUNITY
This past week I have been so inspired by the number of women stepping forward and giving voice to their stories.  Many of us suffer from throat chakra issues stemming from childhood trauma or the long history where we were taught at a young age things like: children are seen and not heard.  In the past women have been threatened with exile or death for speaking our wildly unorthodox truth.  Some of us have learned to speak so soft it feels like we are yelling when we are talking at a normal range.  Others have learned to "stuff it" until we explode in other unhealthy ways.  Others have learned to lower our registers so that we sound like a man in order to be taken seriously.  But now more of us are stepping out and honoring our truth voiced from the depths of our bodies in our naturally higher pitched registers.  We are freeing ourselves from the history of constraints placed upon women.  And as we give ourselves permission to be free, we free those around us too.  

I have been at a retreat all weekend and my intention coming here was to have a break through.  And boy did I.

So here's a strange thing: when I was a child I spoke in tongues.  This is an ancient tradition that I was taught stemmed from the early church, but it is actually found in numerous spiritual traditions around the world.  In ancient Greece those who spoke "divine language" or "glossolalia" or "light language" were afforded high social status because they were thought to have the ability to commune with the angelic realms.  (Today I think it's mostly dismissed as weird, which is why I rarely share this fact with others.  But I'm learning to embrace my weird especially when it resonates with soul.)  I received the gift when I was about five years old when my family attended a charismatic church that met in an old theater in upstate Rome, NY.  I recall using this language a lot by myself as I played in nature, or spent time alone in my room praying to God.  It seemed very natural to me as a child and I truly felt as if I were talking with God in a language that only he could understand.  As I grew older I sort of forgot about it until I went on a mission trip to Mexico in college and a teacher spent some time with me helping me to remember how to do it.  From then on into my adult life I usually found myself speaking in tongues sort of automatically when I was alone and super worried about something that I didn't know how to fix.  I would offer it up to the divine with these mysterious prayers that just seemed too deep for human words until the burden was released.  

Have you ever experienced one of those moments where you just knew that you had to speak? Have you ever felt that some force beyond you was prodding you to open your mouth because something had to be said?  Have you ever just opened your mouth in these moments without knowing exactly what it was that was going to come out of your mouth and trusted these totally improvisational moments?  (I remember Jesus telling his disciples not to worry, that the Holy Spirit would give them the right words at the right time.  Talk about learning not to have control issues!)  I have had this urging happen a few times in my life, usually while gathered in a spiritual community and collectively contemplating together as we seek higher wisdom.  When I get a message to share, usually what happens is my heart begins to pound so hard in my chest it feels as if it might explode if I don't listen to the call and speak.  My mother taught me that this was an experience of the Holy Spirit, and to listen to my heart in these moments.  (Yeah I totally rebelled.  But I also listened :P).  Each time it has happened I am usually totally surprised by what comes out of my mouth because it's usually something beyond what I could have conceived.  I know that it is from a higher source because the community responds with a deep resonance.  The words that poured through me during these experiences had always been in English.  That was until yesterday.

I was in sacred circle with my sisters and we had brought ourselves into a deep meditative state where we were collectively listening for wisdom to guide us into deeper understanding. We were asked to speak as we felt inspired and I knew I would only speak if my heart started to pound.  I listened as many sisters shared beautiful inspirational messages and I thought I might just sit this one out.  But then it happened.  My heart began to pound.  This time with more intensity than I ever remember.  And this was new: I had my eyes closed but I could see a bright light descending on top of my head.  It ignited my whole body with so much energy I thought I might explode if I didn't release something.  So I opened my mouth.  And I spoke.  In light language.  It was an ecstatic experience.  

My sisters and I didn't understand the words that poured forth, but we resonated with the feelings. Several sisters began to cry, another told me she felt like a huge purge was happening, I had tears running down my face.  It felt like there was a collective release of old trauma.  Talk about a cleanse!  I was totally surprised that the light language came out.  I was surprised how it affected my sisters.  I was surprised because I  brought a secret gift into the world and instead of being shunned it was received with grace and it benefited others.  

We are blessed to live in this time where it is safe to come out into the world and share our truth now. This was a powerful lesson for me this weekend.  I remembered that I belong to something greater than myself and by surrendering to the ever present mystery that is unfolding, by offering our gifts in service to others, by sharing our stories, our song, our voices, we become a part of the collective healing that is so needed at this time.  When we heal ourselves, we are healing the world.  When we are brave to speak, others are encouraged.  

May you all be encouraged this week to let your soul speak in all the ways that the spirit calls you!

Love and light <3
Jess     

   

Stay calm during the election chaos and join me everyday on Facebook to practice peace within and send love and light out to the world.  

Have a great week!

Cat Lady Card Reading Oct 10-16

Weekly Oracle Forecast Oct 9-15

29 Day Meditation to Election Challenge: Mission, to Elect Our Highest Selves

Hello Sacred Ones,

Welcome to a new week!  Yesterday in meditation I received a powerful instruction to guide people in meditation each day until the election.  I've decided to offer this on my Facebook page where I will be going Facebook live at some random part of the day, every day from now until November 8 to offer a time to connect to source, deep peace, higher wisdom and stable calm.  Connecting to this energy will help serve our communities as we remain tuned in to the river of life that is always flowing beneath whatever chaos surrounds us.  Studies have shown that group meditation significantly reduces crime rates.  Committing to this practice will transform yourself and your surroundings  The more of us commit, the more change we will effect.  Whether you are doing your own personal meditations or using the guided meditation I offer below or following me on Facebook live, know that each time we take time to tune in we are strengthening this force of peace among us for the highest good of all beings.  As we commit to harmonize with these higher frequencies, we will be contributing to the global peace movement in powerful ways. This will help us dissolve and see more clearly through the many illusions being thrown at us to keep us living in less powerful reactive, knee jerk trauma fields.  Instead we want to elect LOVE into the offices of our higher consciousness and into our communities in the next month--this is the true power of the universe!  When we do this work internally, the outer world must match our internal world.  As we manifest peace within, we will manifest it in the world.  As within, so without.  As above so below.  I offer this gift in service to my spirit guides, my highest self and in service to humanity as we journey through the birth canal of our human awakening.  I look forward to seeing you tomorrow on Facebook!

Om Shanti.  Deep peace.  

<3 Jess

A GIFT FOR YOU:  12 MIN MORNING MEDIATION

Weekly Oracle Forecast Oct 2-8

TRANSMUTING THE TYRANT ENERGY: WISDOM FROM THE UNDERWORLD
Where does inspiration find you?  This week's oracle inspiration came to me this morning in the shower.  The shower is a great place to cleanse our energy fields and come home to the center of who we are in relation to the divine.  I usually get a few key ideas, then I meditate and ground myself in my body and allow myself to begin to speak off the cuff.  I often don't know what I'm going to say until it comes out of my mouth! I used to see this as a handicap (because it has gotten me in trouble on a few occasions!) but I am learning now that this can be a way to transmute divine information when we are prepared to allow the flow to come from our highest sources of wisdom into the deep soul of the body.  The more I practice, the more flows!  This week's transmission focuses on how to transmute dominating and controlling energy to serve our highest good:

SACRED WOOD NYMPH, A YEAR OF FAIRY WISDOM
Enjoy the wisdom of Daphne the Wood Nymph in 2017 with this playful calendar created to heal sexual trauma and initiate us into the healing found in frolicking with the vulnerably powerful feminine.  10% of proceeds will support RAINN.  This calendar includes dates of the new and full moons and the mega solar eclipse so you can attune your life and seed your dreams with the cycles of the universe. <3  

PAPER CRANES: A COLLECTION OF POEMS

Writing helps me transmute dark energy.  Compiled from over ten years of work, this book includes prose that cover a range of embodied feminine experiences, from love, loss, spirituality, motherhood, death and rebirth.  My book is also available on Kindle.  

The light in me salutes the light in you!  Have a great week <3

Cat Lady Card Reading Sept 26-Oct 2

Weekly Oracle Forecast Sept 25-Oct 1

SHARING VULNERABLE TRUTH

SONG OF THE WEEK: SILENT ALL THESE YEARS (Cover) 
Here's to those who have been silent all these years <3  This is a cover of one of my most favorites songs by the most lovely, my absolute favorite artist, Tori Amos. 

YOU NEED TO LISTEN TO THE STORY OF THOSE WHO HAVE LIVED THIS
-Tori Amos

Order a copy: Sacred Wood Nymph, A Year of Fairy Wisdom The pictures for this project were taken during a vulnerably healing photo shoot where I frolicked with the energy of Daphne the Wood Nymph as a way to release sexual trauma.  I created this project with the intent of finding a way to return to feeling more safe and at home in my body. 

SACRED WOOD NYMPH, A YEAR OF FAIRY WISDOM: Healing Sexual Trauma with the Energy of Daphne

How do we "capture" something in a sacred way?  Rather than living out of old modes of domination and oppression of the weak within our world and within ourselves, Daphne the Wood Nymph invites us to play again and heal as we dance with our own gentleness in the beauty of the natural world to which we all innately belong.  She allows us not to capture her body, but images of her tenderly free and intrinsically feminine spirit.

During this sacred play I learned that Daphne knows the way to unlock the healing wisdom of the trees.  In the myth, Apollo chases Daphne to rape her, but Gaia saves her wood nymph by turning her into a Laurel tree.  Laurel wreathes are crowned upon the true victors because Daphne teaches us the true power of vulnerable femininity. Daphne's energy softens our compulsion to subdue nature and our own souls so that we may learn how to return to the sacred joyful, playful, balance of masculine and feminine energies, of the yin and the yang.

This project is a celebration of my 40th year and the healing that is possible for victims of sexual abuse.  (I'm sending so much love and light to my thirteen year old self: we made it so much farther than you ever imagined!  Good work us!)  Yoga and meditation practice has been a vital part of my healing journey.  That and the work of Detoxing God, which I'll be talking about more soon!  Learning how to stay present in the moment, within my body and compassionately witnessing whatever fears and joys it is feeling rather than detaching, dissociating and zoning out has taken years of practicing deep incarnational healing work that I am honored to share with others. 

Many of us who were abused at a young age or dependent upon our abusers (or fed lies by the media that taught us to devalue our natural body and purchase our salvation from toxic systems of oppression) we internalized the critical voices of our abusers for our survival because we were dependent upon them and could not break away.  This is a common symptom of trauma survivors.  When it would overwhelm the still fragile developing ego to consciously see and name the abuse around us, the conscious knowing of abuse hides and goes inward causing dissociation and fragmentation of the self.  This work is about un-fucking ourselves from that cacophonous nightmare and sorting the seeds of our thoughts as we own the ways in which we have unknowingly participated in our own self destruction.  This work is about the ongoing learning to cultivate deep unconditional self love and care as we reconnect with our original wholeness. This work is about showing young girls that ageing is not scary, that our bodies are never ugly, especially not after having babies <3.  This work is about liberating wisdom and beauty so that these essentially feminine energies incarnate us as embodied sacred geometrical pieces that belong to the human family throughout our entire lives.

Special thanks to my partner and probably the only photographer I could trust to take pictures like this, Grant Swenson, who has cheered me along this healing journey, and made me feel safe enough to come out of the woods (and frolic naked in them too!) <3

It is my hope and intention that this calendar will unveil the illusions about softness equating to weakness, and weakness and things feminine being of lesser value (and thus must be dominated) kind of thinking in our culture.  Instead let us move into the work of creating sacred shelters for humanity to flourish in our natural environment, for children and vulnerable populations to have access to healing communities of compassion and healing centers rich in good clean earth (where other people can frolic naked too because it is so healing!!!).  This calendar also includes new moon and full moon dates with times to seed your intentions for co-creation and manifestation of intentions with the lunar cycles.  May this work soften our hearts and awaken our bodies to the fairy playful and fiery feminine spirit that has the power and strength to heal and transform our world as she invites us to return to the sacred balance.  

Presently I have a small batch of five copies available.  $10 of each purchase will be donated to RAINN, Rape Abuse & Incest, National Network.  

Shed a little light in your world this week, sacred ones.  Come out from under that bushel! 

Namaste, 
<3 Jess
 

-Paige

"Jessica Z’s prenatal yoga class is nothing short of wonderful! There is no pressure, and I always get a relaxing and thorough workout. She supplements with everything from visualization and singing to calming chants. I really enjoy the atmosphere created in her class. I enjoyed prenatal yoga because while my body was taking a new shape to carry the baby, my weight was shifting and as baby grew it would create different tension spots in my body. Jess’s class really helped stretch these muscles and ease my body aches. Yoga also helped lower my overall stress level and provided a space for quality time with my body and baby. Jess helps to make the class about more than just the postures. It’s a truly safe and comfortable environment and a great way to connect with other mamas! I am so grateful for her dedication and commitment to yoga and teaching"

Check out Jessica's Prenatal and other yoga classes at Mojo Fit Studios in Fargo, ND or schedule a private lesson, intuitive reading, Reiki session and more by visiting TARALOMA Earth Temple's SERVICES.

Cat Lady Card Reading, September 19-25

Weekly Oracle Forecast September 18-24

Welcome to a new week!  The light is decreasing and change is in the air.  It's almost time to nest into the darkening days ahead.  See how you can utilize this time for growing into your soul potential:

YOGA POSE OF THE WEEK: MOUNTAIN/TADASANA

As we move into fall we are in Vata season.  The wind is picking up, the leaves are beginning to turn and fall from trees, change and transformation are all around us.  Vata energy is etheric, creative, and expansive.  With all the changes of new school schedules and lessening light, we can feel a little spacey if we're not careful to re-ground.  Mountain pose is one of the most fundamental postures in yoga because it teaches us how to hold the strong grounded energy of the lower body with the soft open expansive energies of the upper body.  To begin, place your feet hips distance apart.  Ground down into the legs by lifting the toes and engaging the muscles of the lower body.  Pull in the knee caps, tighten the glutes, squeeze the muscles at the base of the spine, tuck in the low back slightly and engage the core muscles.  Draw this rooted energy up the body into the heart.  Allow the arms to simply hang at your side.  Chin is slightly tucked so the neck is elongating.  Envision light surrounding your head and expanding into the air around you.  Allow yourself to feel equally the strong contracted yang energy of the lower body and the soft expansive yin energy of the upper body.  Hold for 3-5 minutes.  

SONG OF THE WEEK: AWAKE MY SOUL

Visit my SERVICES page to purchase yoga videos, meditations, and one-on-one sessions.  

The light in me salutes the light in you!  Have a great week!

<3 Jess

Isis, by Mother Julie

So, why am I drawn to the mothers of the goddesses? Persephone, Athena and now Isis.

Many of the goddesses Jessica and I have met together feel like daughters to me. I find that really interesting.

Is she drawn to daughter goddesses? Or do I resonate more with the mother goddesses because I am a mother of adults, and in my Crone years?

Artemis is a goddess with whom my daughter fiercely resonates. Our tiff over the Artemis blog nearly derailed this project. It’s ironic that in my rant against Artemis, I didn’t check out her mother.

Her name is Leto, by the way. Leto conceives twins, Artemis and Apollo, after her hidden beauty accidentally catches the eye of Zeus. Leto’s only myth story is her pregnancy and journey to find a place to give birth, because the goddess Hera was jealous and caused all lands to shun her. Finally, Leto finds a floating island, so it is not considered land, and she can give birth. This is her only one active mythic role. After Apollo and Artemis are grown, Leto withdraws, to remain a dim and benevolent matronly figure upon Olympus, her part already played. How sad is that? Yet I identify with her.

I digress.

Each new goddess blog post begins (for me) with days of reading and studying books and online sites. I usually go down several goddess rabbit holes as I find things that interest me.

This time is no different. Once again, I’m drawn to Isis’ mother.

Perhaps the problem is my goal, the purpose for my role in this project. I’m looking for my Mother God. I’m looking for her activity in the world before She was cut down and desecrated by the sin of patriarchy.

I’m looking for the strength and wisdom of The Great Mother with whom I can relate intellectually and emotionally, but also find rest in her arms as a daughter.

As a daughter, Isis was beloved from birth. As goddesses go, she is tenacious. From as early as 2600 BCE until today her reign, which began simply and humbly, has grown to usurp most of the high-ranking goddesses in the Egyptian pantheon. For nearly 3000 years her power, majesty, wisdom and responsibilities grew exponentially, to seat her on the throne of kings, mother of kings, even mother of Ra, where, by the time of Christ, she reigned not only in Egypt, but the whole of Mesopotamia and even Rome. Not only that, but she was so popular, her image as the Mother of God, suckling her god/son was usurped by the Church in their images of Mary and the child Jesus.

Unlike other Egyptian goddesses, she spends her time with her people teaching corn grinding, bread making, spinning and weaving. Isis is also passionate that her people are literate and she is worshiped as a goddess of medicine and wisdom. Not only, back in the day, was she “the assistant” to the pharaohs at their funerals, and attributed with the resurrection of Osiris, but she now is also considered the protector of children and goddess of childbirth!

Go Isis! I wonder what your mother is like?

Her name is Nut. (okay, don’t laugh). She’s one of the oldest Egyptian deities. The Sky Goddess. Her headdress is a pot (part of her name), which alludes to a uterus. She receives the dead into her arms, and her image is found on the inside cover of many Egyptian coffins. The image is strikingly similar to that of Isis with her wings and seating position.

Beautiful, isn’t she? 

The most prevalent images of Nut are of her duty as Sky Goddess. Her brother/husband, Geb, is the Earth God. Which is fascinating because most other cultures associate goddesses with the earth and their male counterparts with the sky. Nut is beautifully adorned with stars covering her nude body, hovering over Geb, her feet and hands touching the four corners of the earth.

Each morning she births the Sun and Moon. They travel across her body and are swallowed up in the evening. The stars drift down her body throughout the night. If I drew a mandala, her yoga pose would be Downward Dog.

She is one of a handful of the most ancient Egyptian deities.

Her titles include: Coverer of the Sky, She Who Protects, Mistress of All, She Who Bore the Gods, She Who Holds a Thousand Souls.

Here is the birth story of her daughter, Isis, and Isis’ siblings:

Some myths interpret the image of Nut and Geb, as Sky Goddess and Earth god, in continual intercourse before she births her own children. Ra, the Sun god fears another will take his throne when he discovers Nut is with child. He forbids her to give birth any day of the year. In those days, one year was 360 days. Nut, being wise, consults with the god of Wisdom (Thoth) who devises a plan to gamble with the Moon god, Khonsu, whose light rivals that of Ra. The bet is: If the Moon god loses, he gives up some moonlight to Thoth. The Moon god loses so many times,  that Thoth now has enough moonlight to add five extra days to the year. Since these days are not part of the regular year, Nut now has extra days to birth five children! After their births, Ra, in his rage separates Nut and Geb for eternity.

Nut also protects the ordered world below from the chaos above. She is friend and protector to the dead, who find rest in her. It is believed she draws the dead into the starry sky and refreshes them with food and wine.

“I am Nut, and I have come so that I may enfold and protect you from all things evil.”1

To my own children: How I wish that were me.
 

1. "Papyrus of Ani: Egyptian Book of the Dead", Sir Wallis Budge, NuVision Publications, page 57, 2007, ISBN 1-59547-914-7

Download the Isis Coloring Mandala.
Go to the beginning of our coloring journey.

Cat Lady Card Reading, September 11-17

Weekly Oracle Forecast September 11-17

SOUL EXPANSION REQUIRES LAND CONNECTION
This week I had the opportunity to travel to Cannon Ball, North Dakota and see for myself what was going on.  Here are a few of the highlights:

•  Before I arrived at Sacred Stone Camp we were stopped on a stretch of the highway that was shut down, an "information check point" staffed with half a dozen National Guardsmen to verbally tell each driver to watch out down the road for possible people ahead.  (How many tax dollars does this cost???)
• Outside of the camp site tons of signage amply warned us to slow down, love the land, #NoDAPL, Water is Life, Protect the Water, etc. (Volunteers, wearing bright vests, mindfully directed traffic.)
• Signs read: no drugs, alcohol, or weapons allowed (and I didn't see any).  I did see lots of good, clean, fun energy!
• I received a warm welcome by the Lakota/Dakota people who shared their stories around the camp fire, danced, told jokes, cried, drummed, sang and prayed.  
• I saw a brilliantly organized kitchen staff that offered hot meals (and coffee!) to everyone who came to the camp (including pulled pork and buffalo stew!)
• I learned how the entire purpose of the camp is to pray for peace and to protect the land, for water is our first medicine.  
• I saw grown men and young boys tear up as they reminded us that when the water is polluted, we are polluted, our children are polluted, and our ancestors are grieved.  I have never witnessed such tender, brave sharing of men. Their care for the earth in spite of all the heartbreak they and their families have experienced in the generational traumas they have survived was one of the most remarkably moving moments. 
• I heard from people all over the world who had found their way through insurmountable odds to get to North Dakota and come and hold sacred space for this land. They came because they know that what happens here, happens everywhere.  When one river is polluted, the loss of life has far reaching effects.  Never in history has this many native nations gathered united like this. Elders spoke of the great forgiveness and reconciliation that is happening among them.
• People at the camp are praying for you and me, for every living creature of the earth, every single day.  
• I experienced extreme hospitality, I saw real community, I felt SO MUCH LOVE.  

SUPPORT SACRED STONE CAMP HERE

One of the speakers said what many of us were thinking: this isn't just about a pipeline.  This is about the people of the earth, all people, uniting in a common cause to protect the land and all creatures who depend upon the land for the benefit of all of life.  This is about turning the tide. This is about waking up to our participation in self-destruction.  This is about humanity ascending into a new golden age as we return to an ancient way of life that unfolds in the sacred balance causing widespread healing, true emerging wisdom, and deep reverence for all living beings.

As a descendant of Norwegian immigrant settlers who lived on the Native American's land after they had been forcibly removed, I have benefited in having access to power and social advancement from the horrors done to the Native American people; my own healing requires that I make reconciliation with this dark history beneath my feet.  Soul expansion requires land connection.  We simply cannot afford to ignore the backs and blood we have built our lives upon any longer.  We need to learn from the wisdom of Native people who were the first care takers of the earth.  (I want to write in the Native American elders for president!)

Many of us were raised in a religion and a culture that valued intellectual ascent.  But trying to ascend to God without connecting also to heart and gut is called Spiritual By-Passing.  It's a common practice in many forms of religion that actually causes repression of soul (while pretending to do the opposite).  Listen to my confession and deep convictions about the healing path forward for many of us in this week's Oracle Vlog:  

SONG OF THE WEEK: TERRA
This seven minute song poured out of me one day (gosh ten years ago now!)  I sing it to get myself grounded in the truth of my being.

YOGA POSE OF THE WEEK: HALF LOTUS/ARDHA PADMASANA

Half Lotus is a great yoga pose for meditation.  Sit cross legged and draw one foot onto your thigh or knee (or just stay in a simple cross legged pose, you may also sit on a blanket or use pillows to support your legs if your hammies and hips are tight.)  Draw your shoulders back as you open your heart and slightly tuck in the low back to lengthen your spine.  Tuck your chin slightly to practice Darth Vador breathing (or Ujjaya breath) to focus your mind.  You may use a mudra, or a fingering position that helps circuit the energy through your body such as pressing the index finger into the thumb which symbolizes the ego in submission to the divine. Practice sitting for 10 minutes a day and work your way up to 45 for life changing results.  
 

Practice meditation for 20 minutes every day.  
If you're too busy to meditate--you should practice for an hour
-Zen Saying. 

Receive a free guided meditation (and be added to the temple e-zine) when you e-mail me with MEND & ASCEND in the subject line: 

In remembrance of all who lost their lives on 9/11 & in gratitude for all of our service workers <3

Be the change you want to see in the world.  You can do it!
The light in me salutes the light in you, namaste, namaste!
 
Love, Jessie

Weekly Oracle Forecast Sept 4-10

WILL YOU STRIVE TO LIVE IN SACRED BALANCE?

We have entered a gateway that has the potential to deeply transform us with the eclipse that occurred on September 1, which was also a new moon.  New moons are a powerful time to seed your intentions and refocus on what you are here to birth into your life and into the world at this time.  Mercury, the god of communication is also in retrograde until September 22, which intensifies this time of introspection and total house cleaning that we are being asked to do at this time.

Transformation sounds nice when you’re kneeling to the porcelain goddess and purging sickness (like several in my home were this week) because it is clear that we are in need of healing.  But when we’re feeling like we’ve got our lives under control, an invitation to transform sounds like an invitation to annihilation.  Ultimately though, what is being annihilated are the many illusions that are keeping us living a life that is too small for our soul’s purpose.  It hurts because we have identified and clung to these illusions as if they were actually our true self.  But it is the emerging soul of the divine within us that will not allow us to silence our truth, live a duplicitous lifestyle, or worship false gods masquerading as the real deal.  

It is becoming crystal clear that we are living out of balance with nature.  As whales are beaching upon shorelines with bellies filled with car parts and millions of bees are killed with insecticides meant for mosquitoes, many of us are thinking: enough is enough.  I recall as a young girl growing up believing that something was wrong with me.  On TV and magazines I was presented with all these products to "fix" my inherently wrong nature and in church I was told how my original nature was sinful.  Last week I was reading a tech magazine about how nature is to blame for the death of bees (not pesticides) and our new savior would come in genetic manipulation.  I don't know about you, but I'm done believing in those lies.  Nature is not here for us to dominate and control, (nor are women, minorities or children).  She is here for us.  She heals us.  She has many mysteries that we have not even yet discovered.  She will help us thrive when we stop the domination and control programs and remember how to live in sacred balance with her.  

This week I tried my first Oracle Vlog on this issue:

The 42 Laws of Maat are older than the ten commandments found in the Old Testament, which may actually be a derivative of the original laws of sacred balance.  I have posted them here for you to read.

Living here in North Dakota during this unique time we have an opportunity to face our mistakes and rewrite history with renewed consciousness.  I am saddened that our local paper and many of my friends in the community remain silent on the pipeline issue. Today's Fargo Forum featured a prominent opinion writer (paid for by the Forum), "We cannot allow small factions of political extremists a sort of heckler's veto over critical infrastructure." I'm sorry, but the native people of this country are not political extremists, nor hecklers for defending this planet for the well being of all of us.  They are our forgotten consciousness and the road back to our heart and soul.  I also understand the weight of silence, as a victim of child sexual abuse who has only recently found courage and strength to speak and pursue legal action against my oppressor.  As we gather our courage and take our stand in our lifetime we will see if enough of us have awakened to turn the tides so that our sacred bodies and sacred lands may be treated with dignity and respect once again.  

As a sacred woman, I understand that the inside is outside and the outside is inside.  This past week I had to face again the subtle ways in which I continue to dominate my own soul in order to feel safe in a world that I fear would reject it.  I realize that this work begins first with me.  I have to face the ways in which I have participated in dominating my feminine/yin energies in service of the more favored masculine/yang energies.  As an intuitive who had many mystical experiences as a young girl, I shut down those knowings and rejected parts of myself in order to try and fit in and survive.  As I grow deeper into my priestess training and oracle work, I am unearthing years of shame that has served to silence the truth of my being.  It's terrifying at times to speak out, but what is more frightening to me now is silence and complicity with the powers of empire.  Coming into harmony with soul is a practice that takes time, presence, silence, courage, and dedication.  I honor each of you who are doing this in your life too <3 

As a relatively new person and outsider in my local community, I share the gift of my voice as I have less social pressures to remain silent.  I offer this inspirational piece from MSNBC to ignite our passions to speak out against injustice to remind us all that when we stand together, we are stronger:

May we have the courage to right the wrongs of history and lend our voices to the rising of the soul for is the time to return to the sacred balance.

WEEKLY ORACLE READING
Cat's Advice:

MON-TUE
Ace of Sky: Be on the lookout for thought forms that do not serve your highest good or the highest good of all beings.  Thoughts are powerful.  Utilize yours for the very best.

WED-THURS
The Emperor, Reversed: This cat in its upright position rules over all of creation with dignity.  In reverse, beware of ruling over others in a way that does not serve your highest good and be aware of those who are assuming authority over you only to take advantage.  All beings deserve their sovereign space and dignity in the matrix of life.  Assume yours you will naturally invite others to do so as well.   

WEEKEND
Six of Earth:
Wow I drew this one for last weekend too!  Must be something big coming through.  Showing charity to those in need can change lives for all involved.  Do not assume that your giving will be taken advantage of.  Trust that the spirit in which you give will spread to all involved.  Pay it forward and let generosity rule over scarcity.  

YOGA POSE OF THE WEEK:  CAMEL/USTRASANA
Opening your heart can be scary.  This brave vulnerability can also be liberating and healing! Camel pose invites us to open, open, open!  For beginners, keep your hands on your waist and draw your elbows together.  In time you can reach your hands to your heels.  Start by putting your thighs against a wall and work to keep your pubic bone connected to the wall as you draw the energy up your legs and into your heart.  Slowly release your head and move into your edge making sure to tuck in your low back to avoid any crunching or pain in this area.  To come out, tuck your chin first and rise up.  

In Sanskrit the heart center is called the 'anahata' which means unbroken.  There is a place within us all that remains intact no matter what kinds of traumas we have experienced, divine love still shines through us and it connects us all. Open to the divine love flowing to you and through you this week!

SONG OF THE WEEK:
A native american prayer that I set to music, Peace Before Us.  May it be so.

Weekly Oracle Forecast, Aug 28-Sept 3

WISE BLOOD

Once a month I would like to hang a sign in my energy field that says: Gone to Underworld, Back Soon.  I am a highly sensitive person who has developed many coping skills (and personas--thanks Nikki!) to navigate the intensities I experience in the world.  Like many other sensitives, I have to cut the tags out of my clothes and regularly find quiet seclusion and nature to center myself. Before I learned how to work with my gifts, I saw them as defects. I would return from grocery shopping shivering from all the unconscious pain and trauma I intuited from other people as we brushed by one another in the supermarket aisles.  Now that I've learned some psychic protection skills, I can choose when to tune in to others and how I can tune out.  But beyond the coping skills there is something deeper that is coming to my awareness.

Those people who know me well already know this about me: about once a month I travel to the underworld.  I don't really have a choice about it.  I must go to the depths, drop into my well of wisdom, lift up the other side of the carpet and face whatever needs to be faced in that realm of the universe to which I belong.  If I do not take time to slow down and honor this inward journey during this enchanted time of extreme sensitivity, I get short of temper, I cut off connections in my relationships, I self sabotage.  Now I am learning that this is time for seeing behind the veil and it is a gift; I simply must slow down to honor it.

In ancient times women left the city and their work to sit together, bleed together, and share their knowing wisdom.  The men took over their work (and learned a new appreciation for all the women did).  When the Goddess reigned, women were thought to be more in tune with the spirit world behind the veils of everyday life during their menstruation.  They were considered the prophetesses, the priestesses, the oracles, the voices of true wisdom before patriarchy decided women could not be spiritual leaders.  Women knew how to keep the community in balance with creation.  When they returned to the city, everyone was blessed, rested, and renewed.

(These are some stark gender roles of which I am aware and I want to note that in ancient times the hermaphrodite was honored as a supreme being because they had achieved the sacred balance of the masculine and feminine.  I also have read and intuit that those who attended women and identified more with a feminine role also joined them in the exodus from the city.  I would highly recommend reading, The Red Tent and visiting DeAnna L'am's website to learn more about how to honor feminine ways of being.)

The oldest and most respected role of sacred women was that of the oracle. An oracle co-creates with divinity and births new life through her womb and her words. Centuries of patriarchal and hierarchical powers have demonized, silenced and subverted sacred women and feminine ways of knowing. But the tide has turned. Now is the time for sacred women to rise and take their rightful, equal place in the universe.

Our current modern daily life lacks the time, space, and structure to slow down and listen to our inner wisdom.  I believe that we are awakening and remembering the ancient ways and soon returning to a balanced way of life that honors the cycles of women and creation. 

Maybe it begins with a moon-strike where women refuse to work on the full moon and we build from there.  This month I decided to tie a red string around my wrist to remind myself that when I bleed this is sacred time.  What ideas do you have?  I'd love to hear them in the comments below.

Here is an intimate meditation I am sharing this week, from my own "Red Tent" as I sat and rested in my home:

Wisdom was the topic of the lectionary readings this week as well.  As I was preparing for the sermon I preached this morning I learned that the tradition of Wisdom Teachings found in the scriptures are rooted in Egypt and the Ancient Near East.  Wisdom is about finding right harmony and right relationships with those around us and this divine creation in which we live.  Read the sermon here or listen to the original inspiration for the sermon that I received in my meditation below. (Reflection on the lectionary texts: Psalm 112, Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16, Luke 14:1, 7-14).

WEEKLY ORACLE READING

I'm so grateful for the mystic cat deck that Nikki-the-Know-It-All gifted me last week!  (Isn't her boyfriend so amazing with his third eye?!)  I've been studying archetypes for at least ten years now and I'm just loving the discovery of how these universal human patterns are contained in the ancient Tarot.  

So the spread that Nikki presented last week is awesome for personal readings.  But the cats have told me that they would like to forecast the spiritual weather for the week on my oracle blog.  So I've settled on a three card spread, one card for MON-TUE, another for WED-THUR, and the final card for the weekend.  So here's your cat-forecast for the week:

Seven of Sky + Nine of Earth + Six of Earth

Mon-Tue: Seven of Sky reversed

You may be unaware of the trickster in your midst.  Maybe it is within you and it has been self sabotaging.  Take some time to ponder if the trickster energy is serving your highest good and the highest good of all beings or not.  Make sure you are conscious of the way it is working in your life.  Sometimes it is necessary to veil the truth, other times it is not.   If you have been deceitful and it has brought harm to others, it is time to make amends.   

WED-THURS: Nine of earth

There is a wealth of material abundance you possess.  Open to the awareness of all your material wealth, even if it seems small in comparison to others, it may be large compared to most of the world.  Start seeing yourself as one who has a wealth of security and abundance. Rest assured that you have enough and that abundance is now flowing to you.

Weekend: Six of Earth

Give of your abundance to others.  We receive in order to give so that all may be in perfect balance.  Our possessions are not signs of our higher worth; all beings are worthy of dignity and abundance.  Lift others up to share in what you currently possess so that all may be well.  

YOGA POSE OF THE WEEK: TREE POSE / VRKASANA

The trees know how to draw energy from the earth and they remind us upright creatures how to do the same.  It is a pretty amazing thing to be a mammal that does not crawl, belly down, towards the earth.  Tree pose reminds us of the dignity and gift of our upright nature, connected to the earth and the stars.  Begin by grounding down into one leg, lifting the toes, engaging the knee cap, the glutes, the muscles at the base of the spine, and the core.  As you engage these muscles imagine that you are drawing up earth energy into your body.  You may affirm that you are a Gaian, a creature of the earth.  Visualize your lower body as steady as a trunk of a tree as you open the hip of your other leg.  Come to your edge as you open this hip and place the other foot in a kickstand on the ground, on your shin or on your thigh (just avoid the knee).  Then draw that energy up the spine to your heart center.  Imagine the expansiveness of the upper body which remains soft and open.  You may keep your thumbs at your heart or if you feel steady, lift your arms above you and expand the energy even farther. The lower body is grounded, the upper body is open and expansive.  Play with finding the balance between these two energies as you experience the stability of rootedness and the openness of creative expression.  (Then do the other side!)

SONG OF THE WEEK

I am choosing the Weatherman song in honor of my mystic cats who want to guide us through the energetic weather and because this song is about a bird being able to fly through the depths and heights of storms.  Enjoy the video below or the studio version here <3

The light in me salutes the light in you, namaste, namaste.  
Have a great week!  
<3 Jessica

Abiding in the Presence of Wisdom + A Sermon Preached + Shepherd of the Prairie Moravian Church, Fargo ND

Texts:
Psalm 112
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Luke 14:1, 7-14

By Wednesday this week I landed myself in bed with the covers pulled up over my head wondering if I should scream or cry into my pillow.  My two little kids, Ela almost 7 years and Dylan 5, were at each other’s throats all day.  I’m not sure if was just the end of summer—we’ve spent way too much time together and we can’t get back to school soon enough—or if it was the instant sugar drop that followed several sneaky bowls eaten from a box of Trix cereal that I was persuaded to buy against my better mom judgement because it had a Secret Life of Pets toy inside.  Either way, after breaking up one too many fights between the two I came up with a parenting idea that was a little shy of my best.  Which taught me a new gem of wisdom:

During the storm is NOT time to build a new home!

But I did.  In a flash I had a whole new parenting strategy.  I thought: If you can’t beat em, join em.  “Ok, fine!”  I yelled.  “Let’s just all yell all day long.  This will be fun.  Can I yell too??”

I immediately felt ashamed for stepping out of my inner peace and into their fight.  (They did, however immediately stop fighting as they wondered what the heck was wrong with mom.)  I had let myself down.  I had for a moment lost my way and I felt out of alignment with my true self.

Instead of screaming or crying into a pillow I found some quiet and prayed:  Jesus, please teach me how to walk in your way.  Mother Mary, please teach me how to raise my children.  I felt the room shift and a presence of peace came into my body and into my home that stayed with us for the rest of the day. 

I realized:

The Wisdom of God is a presence that desires to be known by us.  

The psalm in today’s texts come from the tradition of Wisdom teachings, a style of writing rooted in ancient Egyptian and ancient near east cultures.  It’s a tradition that keeps the codes for how one lives in harmony with the divine creation.  

Charles Halton, biblical scholar and author of Understanding Wisdom Literature, discusses the challenges in applying these strange and sometimes contradictory teachings to our lives:

What is the reader to do when faced with a situation in which biblical texts contain divergent ideas about God? … "The reader must decide which portion and which voice to listen to, in order to produce a meaning from the book." Characters within the Bible lie, cheat, murder, and steal, and part of reading Bible well is discerning which voices are trustworthy. Few would think that the voice of Pharaoh is presented as normative and Moses was a scoundrel for causing legions of workers to shirk their duties. 

Should we fear God or just simply enjoy life?  Halton asks an important question: why do we have to choose just one voice to listen to in the Bible?  Instead of picking a lone voice to carry us through the vicissitudes of life … wisdom literature in general, says that we need several {voices} depending upon the specifics of the situations that we are in. 

Wisdom is learning how and what to draw from the abundant well.  Wisdom reminds me, during the storm is NOT time to build a new home!  Wisdom reminds my children:  if mom ain’t happy, nobody’s happy!

Wisdom is the space for truth to grow.  With human reason it’s easy for us to get caught up in dualistic thinking of right or wrong.  Heros and criminals.  Good people and bad people.  This math equation will not put that satellite into orbit around that planet.  The math is wrong.  Wisdom is a different kind of knowledge.  Wisdom is the sort of knowledge that a mother has with a child.  A child is not wrong because they don’t know how to behave like an adult.  Wisdom gives space for the small seeds of truth within us to grow and expand.  Wisdom allows for mistakes because mistakes are how we learn and grow.  Wisdom doesn’t demand instant perfection.  Wisdom is movement, play, dance, it’s the understanding that what works for one person in one situation will not necessarily work for another person in the same situation.  Wisdom is discretion and discernment.  Wisdom sees the big picture because it knows the history of where we come from, our lineage, ancestors, and knows the history of the problems we have inherited that are unique to us in many ways and in other ways also universal.  Wisdom honors our growth edges and doesn’t expect us to all be at the same place at the same time.  Wisdom knows our journey.  Wisdom is multifaceted.  It is a presence that can be called upon to dwell with us in our time of need.

The Wisdom of God dwells within our bodies; it attunes us to the truth of our being and the ways in which we are in harmony with divine law and the ways in which we are out of harmony with divine law.  We know when we are in line with our divine nature.  Life seems to sing.  We know when we have transgressed and when we have become out of harmony with divine nature: we feel on the outside of the city, unable to return to the center of our being.  Wisdom teaches us there is nowhere we can go to be separated from God.  Nothing we can do.  Jesus is outside of the city with us, in our suffering.  By seeing Jesus in our midst and with us even in our mistakes, we can receive forgiveness, and grace for whatever transgressions we have done.  We can simply face the ways in which we fall short—rather than hiding our mistakes from ourselves and others with hardness of heart or so many years of shame or wrongly believing that we are somehow unworthy or unlovable now.  

In the psalm today we are told how it is with the righteous.  How they dwell with God, how they abide in the presence of wisdom.  It is interesting because the beginning of the texts the writer tells us, “Happy are those that fear the Lord,” and at the end of the text that the righteous do not fear those who do evil.  “They are not afraid of evil tidings; their hearts are firm, secure in the Lord.
8Their hearts are steady, they will not be afraid.”

So to fear the Lord, actually means to have a steady heart that refuses to fear evil.  I wish I would have known that when a friend recently told me one of the reasons she can’t be a Christian because she couldn’t accept that we must fear God.  With how many times the angels say, “Fear not!” it’s strange to have this seemingly opposite idea to fear God.  Wisdom shows us that fearing God means having a steady heart.  Refusing to fear that which is evil.  Wisdom is discernment about how to fear rightly.

There is a way in which unhealthy fear is running rampant in our culture. We are told to fear all sorts of things.  It seems we are always on the lookout for an enemy, or a catastrophe, or some disease, preparing ourselves for these unknown worst case scenarios.  And by doing so we keep our mind agitated and restless.  It’s almost like we are experiencing a collective post-traumatic stress disorder where we are unable to calm down and to truly rest in God’s peace on earth, in our bodies, in our energetic field, and let nothing, nothing take us out of that space.  We are not being called live in this kind of fear.  We are being called to have a steady heart. 

Fearing God means remaining in God’s peace because we know what it’s like when we lose our way.  It means staying in the presence of wisdom.  Staying in the truth.  It means waking up to all the illusions we have veiled as truth. 

The connections of neural networks in our brain look strangely like the universe, and lots of universes strung together in filaments of light.  The universe is inside of us and we are inside of the universe.  Yet when we allow our fears and illusions to run the show and we fear evil instead of fearing God we allow ourselves to dwell in the illusion that we are separate from divine creation.  We forget that we are here to learn love, here to expand the light of God’s love within us in a world of woe.  We are not called here to tremble with fear.  We are not called here to be slaves to anyone, we are not called here to live small lives.  We are called here to shine.  We shine by facing our mistakes and learning from them.  Then the light can come all the way into our dark corners of our being and release us.  We eat humble pie.  We pray under the covers, we do whatever we need to do to receive God’s forgiveness and wisdom, and we get up and try again. 

Jesus reminds us in the New Testament text today that those who humble themselves will be exalted and those who exalt themselves will be humbled.  It is a reminder that to be “in” is sometimes out of alignment with our social codes.  To be in says Jesus, humble yourself.  And when Jesus says to humble ourselves it is not so that we are made small, it is so that we can be made large. So we can truly see the soul, the light, the good within, the god within, the wisdom buried underneath all the illusions.  We are not in because we are abiding by a social code which keeps us enslaved and fearing what is evil.  For when we fear what is evil we are unable to transform it, when we fear what is evil we are unable to face it, when we fear what is evil we give it ultimate power and we make evil God.  

In Hebrews today, the writer urges us to look to the edges of the city where they make sacrifices of animals.  The writer points there and says this is where Jesus goes: because there is no place that Gods peace and healing love cannot go.  Jesus goes right to the heart of our very pain.  How can we not face our pain, when Jesus is standing right there saying: I can heal this, I can resurrect this?

Jesus reminds us that we need not shed blood any longer.  No one needs to die for their sins anymore.  We need not fear that which is evil because God is reconciling all of creation.  God is transforming that which is evil, transforming people like Paul who once persecuted the light, to be light bearers once again.  God is calling back all of creation that all may see and know the glory of God.  We keep a steady heart when we see the rise of a military state that would rather criminalize people than allow them to learn from their mistakes and grow into their full potential.  We keep a steady heart when we see our rivers have been polluted, because we are not being good stewards of the earth.  We keep a steady heart because we know ultimately that love is more powerful than death.  And so we press on to do the work we have been given to do.

I urge you, let God’s wisdom come to you this week, as a presence.  In the Old Testament the Divine presence on earth is called the Shekinah, in the New Testament it is called the Holy Spirit.  Invite the Holy Spirit to come and let your body be filled with God’s wisdom.  Let all of your shadows and pain be touched by divine light.  See yourself as a child of God, created to do what Jesus did.  Jesus said come, you can heal the sick, you can raise the dead, you can stand with a steady heart against the forces of evil in this world.  You can do the things I did, if you follow me in the way.  

May the one who created us bring us to our full maturity, restore and redeem all creation, as we continue to walk in the ways of wisdom.  Amen.  

Weekly Oracle Forecast, Aug 21-27

Oh hey, it's Nikki the Know-It-All here from North Dakota, the one who is silently judging you.

So ya.  This week things are getting a little weird.  But my spirit guides are telling me that weird is about to become the new cool, so ya, hang in there.  Anyways, we just had a powerful full moon on Wednesday that sent out some major energy to transform all of our dirt into the beautiful dance of our lives.  That's right!  Whatever stuff in your life that you've previously seen as bad, all that stuff has been drummed up into the air and has the potential to shift from being a drain to flowing for your highest good.  So ya.  Good news!  

You know, after I was burned at the stake in my last life, I didn't want to come out into the world in this life.  But once I started listening to my spirit guides again and they assured me this time was going to be different, I finally got the guts to escape my solitude in the woods...and you know what? I found true love waiting for me!  So I know good stuff is going to happen to you when you connect with your spirit guides and let your soul expand into the world too :) I'm still silently judging you as you get your sea legs, but hey, I'm working on that with my spirit guides.

I'm so excited to introduce you to my new boyfriend Lars, from Fargo.  I thought I'd never love again, but this hybrid alien/humanoid captured my heart with his amazing third eye.  Just wait till you feel all that enlightening energy when he looks directly at you.  You'll get some powerful downloads from your spirit guides every time!  Also, I have a big reveal about the secret spiritual powers that North Dakotan's have developed by surviving all these harsh winters.  Check it out: 

Anyways, I am gifting Jessica one of my favorite decks to use so she can take her oracle skills into the next dimension.  This purrfect Mystical Cat Tarot deck reflects archetypal patterns of human consciousness known as far back as ancient Egypt, you know where they loved cats almost as much as I do.  So yeah, like people don't really get that the Tarot is linked to the Kabbalah, Jewish, and Sufi mysticism, and that Tarot is sorta like the your personal ancient therapist with personality assessments pre Carl Jung.  So ya.  Have fun expanding your consciousness with these wise cats!

Weekly Oracle Reading

Begin by taking a few deep breaths and inviting your whole self to be present in your body.  Next banish anything from your space that no longer serves you, your deepest soul or highest good of all beings.  Then, invite your spiritual guides and most helpful ancestors to be available to you for guidance. (I always invite Jesus and my favorite Goddesses or deities that specialize in my quandary.  For instance: if the matter is related to my children, I invite Mary, the Goddess Isis, and Demeter who all bring mothering wisdom to me.)  Then think of a question that you would ask a wise mentor, dear friend, or compassionate counselor for advice.  Once you complete all these steps, proceed with the reading below: 

Card 1:  Unknown Spiritual Influence
This card represents unknown spiritual forces that are affecting the matter at hand.  Spiritual influences can be positive or negative or neutral.

TEN OF EARTH
Underneath whatever anxieties and stresses you presently face, there is a deep spiritual peace and calm that is now accessible to you. Begin to feel this force working in your life and bringing a steady easy and restful joy to your week and the matter at hand. Whatever creative projects are rooted in this deep peace will surely flourish in the world for the highest good of all beings.  As you solidify this connection, you'll start healing old traumas within yourself and in the world. 

Card 2: Amplifier
The second card helps clarify and amplify the meaning of the first card, almost like an exclamation point at the end of a sentence.

XII THE FLOATING CAT-Reversed
Floating Cat is revealing that there needs to be some sacrifices made if you want to cultivate the deep peace in the first card. Reflect on what you will need to let go of in order to tune into the deep peace that lives within you.  What work will you take off your plate?  How will you give yourself the time and permission to slow down and nourish the seeds of peace?  Maybe it's time to also evaluate your influences and cut ties with those that no longer serve your highest good.  Let go and trust that resting will actually bring you what you truly desire.

Card 3: Spiritual Advice for the Matter
This card represents the advice of your spirit guides working for your highest good and the highest good of all beings.

XIV GRACE-Reversed
This upside down cat is revealing that your present path must change because it's not been your most graceful walk.  Trust that a moving in a new direction will better support your human flourishing, ultimate healing, and greatest joy.  You can walk with dignity through the tumultuous world, and find sure footing right beneath your furry feet.  Don't focus on the loud splashing waves, look to the rainbow in the sky to guide your way!
 

Card 4: Unconscious Desire
This card reveals some hidden motivations or shadow aspects of your personality of which you are not yet aware are affecting your energy.

ACE OF SKY-Reversed
There is some scattered energy and jumbled up ideas that are getting in the way of clear thinking of the matter.  The usual ways of thinking may not be what's needed at this time. Notice any brain fog or particular thoughts that are leading you to go unconscious or become depleted in energy. Greet the fears and haters with compassion and invite them to shift from self-sabotaging you to serve the ultimate good instead.
 

Card 5: Conscious Desire
The fifth card mirrors back to you your most present passions and cravings.

XVIII MOON
You want to be more in touch with your intuition, your sudden knowings, and listen for the wisdom of the dark.  Observe your dreams this week and see how they are helping you become more conscious of old patterns and new life.  The moon puts us in touch with feminine ways of being.  Let the energy of last weeks full moon transform your ego consciousness to include more awareness of other aspects of your whole self that are emerging now.  Wisdom is helping you learn how to prowl in alignment with your soul's nature.  

Card 6: Practical Advice in the Matter
This card represents your deepest intuitive response to the matter.  It also amplifies the spiritual advice received in card three.

NINE OF SEA
These cats advise you to cultivate inner peace, heal your scattered mind, and align yourself with your intuition so that a more powerfully calm version of yourself will emerge in the world.  These cats don't need to control the outcome.  They trust the outcome will mirror the harmonious emotions that are experienced in a daily practice.  Cultivate your peace, and you shall live in abundance.  Just as the water flows to these contented cats, so also will the spirit flow to you wherever you find contentment.   

Card 7: Manifestation
The last card reveals to you how all of these energies are likely to manifest in your life should you follow the advice given.  Remember, we all have free will, so just because the cards reveal a potential positive or negative outcome doesn't mean we have no choice in changing the outcome.  It's all about learning how to work with energy so that we can make conscious responsible choices that are for the highest good of all beings.  If you do not believe that your manifestation card would be for the highest good of yourself and all beings, then change your direction.  

TEN OF SEA-Reversed
Your current clan of friends will shift as you apply these cats' wisdom to your present situation.  You'll find new friends and colleagues coming into your life to help support your new growth and serve the greater good.  Working together with others is vital for our growth.  Your previous support systems need an upgrade.  You won't find your normal support systems being able to offer you the encouragement you need.  Instead you'll discover new allies appearing as you grow in new ways!

Let me know how this reading resonates with you in the comments below!  Or if you want a more personal reading, book one with Jessica here.  

And the cats all chant:
MEEE-OOWW-AAHH

YOGA POSE OF THE WEEK: SAVASANA/CORPS POSE

Lars really shines in savasana pose.  You can too, here's how:  Lay on your back and walk your heels away from your body so you get as much length as possible.  Shimmy your shoulder blades together so you have a nice open heart, palms face up. Begin to scan your body from the top of your head to the bottom of your toes relaxing and breathing into every single cell until your entire body is completely at ease.  Witness with compassion whatever thoughts arise.  Invite a golden ball of light to rest over any parts of the body that need extra healing, deep peace, and joy.  Remain in this pose for at least 20 minutes for optimum benefit.  When you practice savasana after asana (yoga) your body is optimized for healing.  Cellular regeneration and deep restoration occurs within.  Maybe someday also enlightenment!  Enjoy!  (But Lars, maybe save your beer for AFTER practice next time, eh?)

Song of the week: Cat Lady

The light in me salutes the light in you, namaste, namaste!
<3 Jessica

Weekly Oracle Forecast, Aug 14-20

Hello Sacred Ones,

We begin a new week ignited by the presence of Mary on her feast day, August 15.  During this time we are invited to unite with people around the world in a celebration of the sacred feminine forces that flowed through this holy woman.  This day is important no matter what you believe about Mary, because Mary reminds us that we are all able to ascend and grow into our divinity just as she and her son Jesus did. 

Before he died, Carl Jung believed that the church's elevation of Mary's divinity marked a huge shift in human consciousness that is taking place during our time.  This change is bringing healing and balance to our collective as the sacred feminine takes her rightful, equal, place in heaven and on earth.   

For much of recorded history, humanity's dominate religions have focused on masculine images of God.  But look back farther in our history and you will find that the Goddess ruled the center of spiritual and social life.  We are coming to a time in human history where Goddess consciousness is returning.  Many of us are remembering and waking up to our innate sacred powers, we are rediscovering our latent gifts of intuition and our call to co-creation. For far too long the gifts that the sacred feminine offers to humanity have been devalued by our dominate culture, demonized and made taboo.  (For more on this see my blog: Divine Like A Girl.)  

In the past I struggled in connecting with Mother Mary.  I think the way history and patriarchy painted her--as a virgin, meek and mild--made her seem out of touch to me. As a woman recovering from child sexual abuse, I craved a divine female role model who also knew what I was going through.  All of the praise I heard about Mary's virginity growing up left me feeling dirty and unholy.  In my own personal healing I needed to discover a sexuality that was sacred, relationships that were holy and not abusive.  I thought a virgin mother wouldn't be able to teach me those things. 

I remember when I was a teenager I had a belief system that something was wrong with my natural body.  I bought into the idea that science could make something better than nature to fix my body.  As an adult I wondered: where did those thoughts come from?  For me, I heard in church a lot about the flesh being bad and sinful.  I also was inundated with ads on TV and magazines trying to sell me products to fix my naturally, 'imperfect body'.  I was unconsciously caught up in an ancient program of self-hatred and self-destruction of the female form that was manufactured in order to make a profit and silence women's ancient wisdom.  

Finding my soul path and the healing I needed required looking deep into the self-hatred I bought into and unlocking the truth of my being again.  With the practice of yoga and meditation, I am healing and rediscovering my sacred essence.  I am dissolving those old programs and illusions, embracing my natural beauty and my deep feminine knowing.  I am reconnecting with the journey my soul came here to take, a journey of incarnation, of spirit dwelling in flesh--an ascension of the divine within the human frame.  

In my meditation today I called upon the Mother Mary to share with us her wisdom for these times. In my Cosmic Q & A, Mary reminded me that our journey is about self-love.  She told me that she is here with us to help raise the divine child within us all so that we can unlock our divine potential just as her son Jesus did.

As I was orating Mary's wisdom, I caught myself calling her Mary Magdalene.  I was shocked to hear my words after the transmission, which didn't even phase me as I received them, even though I know better. After the session I asked why I would call her that?  Mary reminded me what my favorite singer, Tori Amos once said: that she would recommend the practice of marrying the Mary's.  The Mother Mary and the beloved Mary of Magdala are essentially derived from the one divine feminine essence; they both belong to the same source, so we don't have to choose a Goddess.  We get to experience all of Her 10,000 faces, forms that include her virginal oneness and her sacred sexuality.

After reading Marion Woodman's book, The Pregnant Virgin, I began to understand the essence of virginity as having nothing to do with sexual activity. (Actually in the Greek 'virgin' simply means young woman).  Virginal wisdom has more to do with being one in yourself. Virginity is renewable (Aphrodite was known to renew her virginity every spring.)  We all have access to this renewable energy that can make us whole again.

Listen to my meditation with Mary here:

Our Oracle Card of the week is naturally, Mother Mary (from Doreen Virtue's deck, Saints and Angels.)

I am excited to experience how braiding the Mary energies will connect me deeper to the mystery of the one divine feminine source that is rising now.  

As Mary greets our week we will find the divine feminine forces of sacred mothering and beloved friendship more tangibly present in our lives to help us discern what parts of us are ready to grow in divinity and ascend into our higher nature.

Maybe Mary's energy was blocked from your experience for some reason too.  I felt in my meditation today that she wants to be understood in a deeper way as a mother of our wounded child selves.  She wanted us to know that no matter what we have been through, her compassion and her sheltering presence will provide us space to grow into our divine essence just as her son did.  Mother Mary knows how to mother the divine child within us.  The Magdalene works in tandem with Mother Mary as she shares her wisdom of healing and the knowledge of love that is possible even when we have experienced many wounds.  

Call on Mary this week when you need wisdom and healing. Let her compassion protect and shelter you as you grow into your full potential. And let me know how it goes in the comments below!

Yoga Pose of the Week:  Goddess Pose/Utkata Konasana

In Sanskrit,  Utkata Konasana means 'fierce' or 'powerful'  and 'angle'.  Get yourself into Goddess pose when you are feeling insecure or disconnected from your own sacred mother, and your fiercely compassionate energy.  This pose is similar to the squatting that women have done in labor throughout history; this is a powerful pose to usher in the energies of new life. This pose will help you open up your hips, strengthen your pelvic floor, and unleash more Kundalini (the life force) from the base of your spine to flow upwards towards your head.  This will aid you in speeding up your enlightenment, growth and ascension. Heal your relationships as you cultivate love with these goal-post arms and feel the strength that comes from living from a compassionate open heart.  Remember those images of Mary and Jesus pointing at the heart center to remind us that love is the way.  

This week I'm sharing a prayer I set to music.  Enjoy!

Have a great week!  
The light in me salutes the light in you.  Namaste, namaste.  <3  

Jessica

Weekly Oracle Forecast, Aug 7-13

Hello Sacred Ones,

Welcome to a new week! 

I experienced profound shifts in my energy last week as I was contemplating our Sweetness oracle card.  I noticed that as I allowed my sweet child-like self space to express herself, other helpful spiritual companions came out of the woodwork too.  I experienced a fierce mother bear energy rising up to shelter and protect the gentle, weaker parts of myself.  Our culture tends to devalue, dismiss or judge weakness (or children inner and physical) as obstacles to our success.  If I'm not mindful, I slip into this kind of thinking and end up frustrated and fighting with the forces of life rather than flowing.  This week I was reminded when we honor our gentle and fragile aspects, we are actually activating strength and connection to divine energy that is always here to shelter and protect us as we grow.  But we're not really taught how to do this growing up in a culture that tends to view weakness as a bad thing.  Our super powers are actually found in turning towards our weaknesses and vulnerabilities with compassion rather than with harshness.  In soul work, when we honor the gentle aspects of ourselves, we actually experience more strength.  We are always working in tandem with the opposites and working to move into a more balanced relationship between the two poles--towards the center where we abide in infinite source.  This is the practice of neutrality, where we can look with compassion on all of existence (not just the parts that are most comfortable to us) because we find ourselves and our source expressed in all of life.  We see that we are one, and the illusions of duality dissolve.

So how did your week go?  I'd love to hear about it in the comments below!

This week's oracle card is:
Optimism

Lets look for the bright side as we ride out these last days of summer.  When a dark heavy thought or feeling comes your way (like the thought of back to school shopping)  practice greeting it with neutrality and compassion while staying in a high vibrational state.  There is a time for descending and facing our darkness (seasonally this time is during the winter solstice), but this week lets practice allowing our interpretations of reality to play out for the highest good of all beings and see where it leads us!  Let your imagination run wild into the good things that could possibly grow from even the most difficult circumstances.  Remember: nothing is impossible for God.  So why should we allow anything to be impossible for us when God dwells within us?

This Bible verse kept popping in my head all weekend:  All things work together for good for those who love God.  -Romans 8:28

Trust that when you commit to live for your highest good and the highest good of all beings that whatever comes your way is here to serve your soul's expansion. 

Have a great week!
 

Yoga Pose of the Week:  Warrior 2 / Virabhadrasana II
This pose will set you on fire with confidence, rooting you in strength and opening your heart to passion.  To get in this pose, fling your arms wide like you are standing on the edge of the Titanic with Leo DiCaprio (or Kate Winslet, you choose).  Feel the truth in your heart: that it actually does go on and on because in the heart you are connected to the infinite source of love.  Next, line your feet up underneath your wrists and bend your front knee so that it is tracking right over your front ankle.  The back heel is the farthest thing away from your body.  Hips are slightly turned forward for women; men can square them off to the side.  Tuck in the low back so that you are lengthening in your spine and zip up the muscles in the belly so you feel the core ignite.  Pretend you are standing on ice, and pull the energy of your legs upwards. Spine is straight as in mountain pose, so no leaning forward yet!  Imagine this energy bursting with joy in your heart as you squeeze your shoulder blades together and open the heart center deeper.  Enjoy the power of a peaceful warrior!

This weeks musical inspiration is a song about a little fish swimming upstream against all odds. Just keep swimming!  

NORTH OF NORMAL
If you're in the Fargo-Moorhead area, join me this Thursday August 11 for a workshop at Mojo Fit Studios from 7-8:30 p.m. on the Doshas.  Explore the three types of energy bodies and discover yoga poses to suit your energy body's healing and unleashing of potential.  

Gate 4: Isis, She Who Is All - Heart Chakra

Drawing by my mother, Julie Zdenek (c) 2016

I adore Thee
in the moon pool
and the dawn star,
in the dark night
and the golden day.
Each one reminds me
to Whom my heart belongs.

-M. Isidora Forrest,
Isis Magic

If you've ever experienced a broken heart and a loss of a beloved, the Goddess Isis can empathize with your pain.  Isis is an ancient Egyptian Goddess known for her magical healing powers, her maternal care of her son Horus and her devotion to her beloved husband, the good King Osiris.

Her name means throne and her headpiece is shaped as one.

Her dark evil brother, Set (the root is related to the word Satan) plotted to overthrow Osiris by crafting a plan to kill him.  Set designed a box that fit Osiris' body perfectly and he tricked him to get inside.  When he did, the box was thrown into the Nile.  

Isis mourns the loss of her husband and goes on a quest to find the chest, which she completes.  But Set finds the chest and lays his hands on Osiris' body chopping it into fourteen pieces and scattering it across the land.   Again, Isis is grieved.  She mourns for her beloved and then takes on another quest to recover the pieces of his body.  She finds all of his pieces except his phallus, so she recreates a magical one and they conceive their son, Horus.  In this myth, the good king is dismembered by the tyrant king who rules in violence while trying to hunt down the divine child, Horus. (Does this sound like King Herod after Jesus' birth?)  Isis protects her son and keeps him safe until he is old enough to avenge his father's death and recover the true throne.

Isis is a bird goddess.  She is often depicted with wings like an angel and her energy is one of sheltering and protection.  She is often associated with the black kite bird or carrion, a bird of prey as she flies across the land looking for the dead pieces to recycle them back in the natural order of life. Birds are also associated with the spirit world, and the Holy Spirit is often depicted as a bird, as are the angels.  The Goddess Isis prefigured and influenced early Jewish, Islamic and Christian stories that also came out of the land of Egypt.  

Isis protected her son, Horus when Set took the throne. She hid with him in the reeds along the banks of the Nile River (does this sound like the Moses story?). Isis was celebrated far and wide, all the way up to Alexandria and the Greco-Roman world. Many early Christians saw status of Isis and Horus and attributed them to Mary and Jesus. The stories of Isis are found as far back as 2494 to 2345 BC.

Sexuality and motherhood unite in Isis who is an admirable lover and mother. She holds the opposites of the virgin/whore split that much of our psyches still suffer from.  The pop singer Madonna revealed this split in our psyches as she held the opposites in her persona that rocked the world in the 80s and 90s.  The culture was able to have a more conscious conversation about the taboo desires many men have to marry a mother/wife type woman and have affairs with a whore/lover and why this split was difficult to hold together in one woman who is naturally both mother and lover.  The psyche naturally splits in development (but especially so in traumatic development) and parts of self can remain hidden like Osiris' body scattered across the land.  Ancient humans understood the energy of Isis as healer--she had the ability to reconnect the fragmented selves and bring love back to life.  

Horus' birth is traditionally celebrated on the Winter Solstice--a time when humanity gathers on the darkest day of the year to remember that the light will return. Across ancient cultures people anticipated the birth of a hero at this time.  Christianity moved its celebration of Jesus' birth to this time of year to overlap this ancient practice, even though most scholars place the birth of Jesus sometime in the summer.  

The fourteen pieces of Osiris' body relate to the waxing and waning moon. The Hebrew people, like the ancient Egyptians and much of early human civilizations followed a lunar calendar. The moon cycles through symbolic death and resurrection as the light dims and grows again.  The moon has inspired people to see the energies of growth and change as positive, though painful, and necessary to renew life. Women's menstrual cycles also naturally follow the moon--especially when we are more connected to the earth and refrain from artificial lights which can tamper with this natural connection.

As a woman who has typically fallen for wounded men, the energy of the Goddess Isis resonates with me. As yoga teacher and practitioner of Reike, I feel her passion to help others as she flies through the air looking for all the parts of her beloved so that she might restore his body.  My eldest son also shares a winter solstice birthday like her son, Horus. <3 I look to Isis to help me mother and protect my children when I'm feeling especially alone.

Isis energy also provides shelter and safety in the presence of Set/Satan who comes to destroy the divine child within us all.  In some variants of the story Isis even empathizes with her brother Set/Satan and longs to heal him too-- in a fateful moment she pauses and her son Horus beheads her as he feels betrayed.  

Humanity's ultimate healing comes from this ongoing search to resolve the split between the Light and the Dark. Under patriarchy, the feminine wisdom is still beheaded and silenced. When people don't want healing for themselves or others they attack the energy of the Goddess Isis, much like Set/Satan.  What drives this energy of Set's dividing and conquering? How do we participate in that?  Whose physical or energetic bodies are we dividing in order to maintain rule by a tyrant king in ourselves or in our world?  The refusal to face the suffering fragments, the refusal to honor the cycles of life and resurrection have confused us about who is really fragmented, who is really healing and who is really disguising themselves as the good king while ruling like the tyrant king?  These are ancient patterns of energies that are still looking to us for resolution.

The dividing and conquering energy of Set/Satan reminds me of the scary image of Bluebeard in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale who perpetually chops up his wives into pieces in his secret bloody room. In this tale, the feminine hero braves the violent fear and gathers all of the pieces of her sisters who have been cut into pieces by the tyrannical energy.  Much like Isis, the feminine hero outwits the tyrant king and reassembles the pieces of her sisters' broken bodies which restores them to life.

There is a theory that Mary Magdalene was actually a Priestess of Isis.  In Christianity the image of Jesus' broken body is presented at each Eucharist. In the New Testament scriptures (Corinthians 12) there is a beautiful analogy of how each person is a part of Christ's body--one is an eye, the other a hand, etc. There is an early ancient Christian hymn that echos the stories of Osiris: the bread that was scattered upon the mountain is gathered into one.

In some traditions of shamanism and in progressive therapies, recovering the fragmented pieces of our souls and integrating them into our awareness is the work of ongoing healing. We could use this myth and see how all of these characters are moving about in our inner worlds.  When we honor our healing, we honor the life giving energy of the Goddess Isis, who carried the ankh, the staff of life which is an early representation of the tree of life in the Kabbalah, and also the cross of Jesus.  The loop at the top is seen as a womb, the horns of the bull (which were demonized and deviated into images of a horned devil) actually represent the creative powers of the uterus and the ovaries.    

As I was reflecting on the roots of Jesus and his possible relationship and connection to the Egyptian cult of the Goddess Isis I thought: gosh their names are similar! And I remembered from my studies of ancient languages that the J's and I's were interchangeable.  So I looked into it further: in Latin Jesus is spelled Iesus, in ancient Greek (I-ee-sous).

In my own life, I struggle to balance the relationship between so many different parts of myself, my obligations, my shadows and my gifts--I often wondering how I'll ever "hold it all together." Meditating on Isis' power to hold together and reunite the fragments has been soothing to me as I work to hold the tension of opposites within--a tension that Carl Jung likened to a sort of death and resurrection.  

Isis puts me in touch with that mothering energy within me that can gather and hold the little vulnerable ones and offer comfort and protection through the distressing moments of life as we gather strength to face the tyrants within, to recover our souls and move into more abundant life.

Ever since I drew a picture of Isis on my altar, feathers have been appearing everywhere in my life.  I sense her presence like an angel watching over me and my children as we make our way in a world that still allows many forms of tyranny to rule.
 

The heart chakra is located around the area of the heart.  In Sanskrit it is called 'Anahata' which means literally unstruck or unbroken.  There is a place in the heart--a place of divine love--that can never be divided by evil.  There is a place here where joy always resides.  This is the place to which the energies of Isis/Horus and Mary/Jesus/Magdalene tether us to our wholeness which is found in eternal love.  The Goddess Isis has been called, She Who is All because she cares about all of the wounded lost fragments of self and she knows that ultimately it is our complete integration and compassion for all of us that will bring about the healing of humanity.

I imagine the Goddess Isis in the yoga pose of Thunderbolt,  seated calmly in her nest sheltering the divine child within us all with her wings wide, giving us sacred space to mature until we are strong enough to face our own tyrant kings.

Download the coloring page for the Goddess Isis.  

Begin the Coloring Journey with our first entry: Divine Like A Girl

 

Weekly Oracle Forecast, July 31- Aug 6

Me and my littles this week: trying to pose for a picture but the itchy mosquito bites prevailed :P

The mosquitoes ARE in full force, both those tiny little annoyances and those flying around our inner and cosmic worlds.  It takes us a while to learn that when we scratch, it only makes the itching worse.  As in life, so in the spirit world:  don't scratch the annoyances!  

I'm learning the practice of neutrality.  There are a lot of forces at play that are working to get us all agitated and off focus of our growth work and self-actualization, which is happening at a rapid pace these days!  When we are triggered, we become more easily disconnected from our source, our potential selves, and our vital presence we were created to be in the world.  There are many distractions.  Our work is to remain fiercely in the river of peace especially in the face of violence.  Continue to attune your body to the higher frequencies and possibilities allowing those energies to incarnate our bodies and our world--rather than allowing the lower frequencies to incarnate our bodies and disconnect us from our higher selves and our highest soul-lotions.

Those of us who are especially sensitive have a tougher time NOT feeling all of the energies around us.  I have been working majorly on boundary setting.  I can witness with compassion the suffering around me, but I don't have to endlessly hold the suffering in my own body.  Much of this work is about reprogramming our energies to witness rather than take the fall into victimhood.  We are being called to grow among some pretty big weeds.  Just keep growing.  

The stars are aligning now until December in a similar formation as they did in the 60s.  Energy is ripe for revolution, as we are feeling.  The choice we all have now is whether we will ride the waves of this energy with consciousness.  What revolution will we choose to be a part of? Whom do we serve during this time?  

Will we allow the lower energies of fear and scarcity to play God--or will we allow the higher frequencies of compassion and forgiveness to usher in a revolution of peace and enlightenment?  Do we believe in our human potential for growth? Or have we thrown in the towel and given up on ourselves and our brothers and sisters?  Please don't give up yet!

In the face of all the ridiculousness that has been and will be coming our way, will we stoop to the level of being just as judgmental and harsh?  Will we do to others what they do to us?  Or will we be able to access our higher natures and look with compassion upon the suffering we see--both the conscious and unconscious?  Will we do to others what we would want them do to us?

We are waking up to the violence we have done to ourselves.  Now is the time for extreme self care.  This is not a selfish act that keeps one out of touch with the needs of the world, but the kind of self care that actually heals the world as we heal ourselves.  See, we can only do to others what we do to ourselves.  If we are silencing parts of ourselves and being violent to the soul within us, then we will do the same to others.  As we can behold our whole selves with compassion, we can behold the whole world's suffering too.  What suffering needs most is a compassionate witness. Sometimes just a glance can often begin the cascade of joyful transformation.  Suffering denied grows into tyranny and continues to act out unconsciously the war within ourselves upon others in the world.  

Let's talk politics.  We are being called to have double vision right now.  Called to wake up from naively buying everything we see hook, line and sinker.  Every thing we see has a light and a dark side: a veil and an energy behind the veil.  Our work is to develop the sight to see what is operating behind the veils.  Are we serving energies that are for our highest good and the highest good of all beings?  Or are we selling out to energies that enslave us? Can we witness without demonizing and getting stuck in self righteousness?  Once we dehumanize a person or a group of people it becomes permissible to do them harm which only perpetuates the violence we abhor and are trying to escape.  The challenging work of this time is to seek and find human dignity in every person, even those controlled and veiled by lower energies. Can we look behind the veil and witness the suffering, can we look behind the suffering and see the enslaved soul that longs to be free? As an Episcopalian this is a part of our Baptismal Covenant that I love affirming: to seek and serve Christ in all beings, to love our neighbors as ourselves and to respect the dignity of all human beings.  

If someone does or says something ridiculous, does that give us the right to dehumanize and do violence to them?  No.  Instead it raises the challenge to seek and find and serve the divine that has been hidden within.  It's the double vision challenge.  Most of us are dealing with complexes at play in the world that are shielding and protecting the inviolable human spirit that feels too vulnerable and threatened by a violent world, so its divine face is hidden to us.  If we can appear to that one with compassion, the daemon will often transform right before our eyes. 

For all of Donald Trump's hate speech and lack of compassion, it reveals his internal world of hatred of his most vulnerable aspects.  The energy of this election season has the potential to wake us up to see more clearly the systems at power in the world that we have already made gods in our inner world, which is why they have the freedom to flourish in the outer world.  Donald Trump reveals our misplaced hopes for protection via worldly power and monetary gain, and also our desires for an anti-establishment kind of leader.  Hilary Clinton comes onto the scene as the first woman presidential candidate, aligning with the rising powers of the Divine Feminine.  We are being called to restore balance to our earthly laws which have fallen out of balance with natural law where the masculine and the feminine (or the yin and yang) must be in balance in order to sync up with the sacred symmetry of our created essence.  Our work for thousands of years has been to eliminate slavery within humanity. Power Over programs must be upgraded to Power With. Paradoxically, Hilary also in some ways represents allegiance to the old, patriarchal, wealthy, top down establishment which is scrambling to maintain Power Over, even as it masquerades otherwise.  We are all much more conscious of when we are being dooped, even as numerous forces continue to work to dumb down America.

Will we remain identified with our own powerlessness and thus elect leaders to rule us in their best interests?  Or are we willing to look with compassion upon ourselves and all beings and see the divine child and the inherent dignity within all members of the human family?  Will we serve consciousness rising during this time and help bring about the peaceful revolution of soul?  Or will we close down and add to the illusions and despair?  We can choose to be a part of the problem or a part of the soul-lution.  

So who are you electing this season INSIDE OF YOU to rule and serve over your own holographic realm in the universe?  Once enough of us vote for our higher selves to lead, we will inevitably create a world ruled by dignity for all.  So don't scratch the itch!  Apply the healing balm you know and need :-)  (Oh, and I highly recommend Aveda's Blue Balancing Oil for those pesky mosquito bites!  Soothes skin and muscle soreness in an instant!  My kids LOVE it!)

Oracle Card of the Week:  Sweetness
(from Doreen Virtue's Saints & Angels Deck)

When you feel your third chakra firing up to entangle you in power battles of will this week, practice accessing the softer energies of the heart chakra to surround your frustrations with the compassionate arms of self soothing love.  Practice being your own compassionate witness when difficult emotions arise.  Often times we are dealing with a younger fragile part of self that is feeling overwhelmed and needs our comfort--not our shame or rejection.  Practice listening to these tender parts of self and hearing what wisdom they have to offer you on your healing path.  I will too!

As I reflected on our generosity card last week, I was profoundly moved by the generosity of the earth and how much comfort and nourishment she continues to give me, even as her body is being polluted and her land is being raped.  I was inspired to dig deep and continue to give generously to myself and my children, staying more tuned into her sustaining energy.  I was especially inspired by this powerful Priestess of Juices in the desert and her love of the good gifts of the earth too!  Enjoy!

This week's song is ballad about learning to live in right relationship with challenging people. Erasing one another is not the soul-lution.   We all have to learn how to share the city.

Have a wonderful week good people!  

<3  Jessica

Weekly Oracle Forecast, July 24-30

Hello Sacred Ones,

I can't believe Sunday is here already again!  It's been a busy week of playing here with my kids. We celebrated my son's 5th birthday and we've been crafting and coloring (and working) through these hot, hot days.  It's always interesting to look back on the week and see how the card manifested in my life.  I've experienced some significant shifts in my own energy and a sense of excitement about waking up in the morning because I'm enjoying my life and all it has to offer.  That child-like joyful spirit has definitely been in our home lately.  <3  I'd love to hear what you're experiencing too!  

I have to confess, my daily 40+ minute meditations have been interrupted this week by requests for food, something to drink, money, and basically anything that involves mom's attention.  So this week I didn't get as many "downloads" from my spirit guides, though I did prepare a sermon to preach on Sunday.  (You can read it here.)  

One of my personal challenges through the years has been to create boundaries that allow for me to live a balanced life with quality time with my kids, time to work, and time to self care too. If it were up to the kids (which it's not) I would be a short order cook who stood in the kitchen 10 hours a day. When I was working full time, I didn't see my kids enough.  When my life fell apart (temporarily) in a divorce, I had to up my self care game because I was the single foundation for my kids in my home now.  With no one to hide behind, my well being was now my full responsibility.  Honestly, that was daunting.

In my healing process I learned that there's a lot of programming out there that tells women once they have children that they don't deserve their own lives anymore.  I'm not sure if it's been that way for fathers.  I feel like I have to work extra hard to have a self in a world where it would be easy to just slip away in all the busyness.  I find that when I am centered and rested as a mom, I give to my kids from a place of abundance.  When I'm running on empty, no one is winning.  I am learning that I am valuable enough to take down time to rest which ensures my children that I can show up for them modeling self respect and a self love that doesn't require one person to sacrifice everything for someone else's plans.  We can all learn to sacrifice in a more balanced way as we finally release this ancient domination/submission program that has been keeping us from realizing our inherent human dignity.  When I show my children that I respect myself, they respect me too.  And that is a win/win!

OK, this weeks card is... drum roll please...

Wow.  I have pulled this card a few times in my daily readings recently already.  St. Nicolas was a historic 4th century bishop who was known for his secret gift giving.  He is assumed to be the basis for the lore that became associated with Santa Clause.  

Let's spread some secret gifting out in the world this week!  While others are spreading violence and fear, lets spread some cheer and joy <3  

Have a great week!

Oh, and to get you in the giving spirit, here's a Christmas song <3

Speaking of generosity, here's some free gifts for you!

If you feel moved to share your generosity with TARALOMA Earth Temple, you can make a temple offering here!  The Goddesses bless you <3