New Moon in Aquarius: BE TRUE TO YOU

via original art studio

For this new moon, I’ve decided to compile quotations from free-spirited, innovative, and fiercely individualistic Aquarians to inspire, empower, and perhaps even emancipate you – body, mind, and spirit. With both the Sun and Moon in Aquarius, tonight’s beautiful Uranus energy offers us the power and courage to make the changes in our lives and our realities that have been brewing for some time now…to celebrate, honor, and share our completely unique and individual spirits and gifts in this world. Themes of freedom, revolution, novelty, and individualism are at the heart of Aquarian energy. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the brilliant unwavering Water-Bearers. Share your own if you have them!

“I am an excitable person who only understands life lyrically, musically, in whom feelings are much stronger as reason. I am so thirsty for the marvelous that only the marvelous has power over me. Anything I can not transform into something marvelous, I let go. Reality doesn’t impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls.” ― Anaïs Nin

“Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.”― Anaïs Nin

“I disregard the proportions, the measures, the tempo of the ordinary world. I refuse to live in the ordinary world as ordinary women. To enter ordinary relationships. I want ecstasy. I am a neurotic — in the sense that I live in my world. I will not adjust myself to the world. I am adjusted to myself.” ―Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934

“There is not one big cosmic meaning for all; there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.”― Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds.”— Bob Marley

“Bob Marley isn’t my name. I don’t even know my name yet.”— Bob Marley

“Man is a universe within himself.”— Bob Marley

“You say you love rain, but you use an umbrella to walk under it. You say you love sun, but you seek shelter when it is shining. You say you love wind, but when it comes you close your windows. So that’s why I’m scared when you say you love me.”— Bob Marley

“No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.”— Virginia Woolf

“I am rooted, but I flow.”— Virginia Woolf

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”— Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll, aquarius, quote

“The most important thing in life is to stop saying ‘I wish’ and start saying ‘I will.’ Consider nothing impossible, then treat possiblities as probabilities.”— Charles Dickens

“Learn to value yourself, which means: fight for your happiness.”— Ayn Rand

“It is not death that we wish to avoid, but life that we wish to live.”— Ayn Rand

“Always we’re our Brother’s teacher of hardworking full-truth, uniting All-one-G0d-Fatih, or we decay being his Keeper by unworkable half-true intolerant hate! We’re all-one or none! Exceptions eternally? Absolute none!” – Dr. E.H. Bronner

“You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right. “ — Rosa Parks

“People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.” — Abraham Lincoln

Rituals for the New Moon in Aquarius

Aquarius is all about defying convention and honoring the unusual, so I am not going to give any specific suggestions for herbs or teas, rather it would be most suitable to make something using your own intuition and taste as your guide! My tea tonight is going to be blended based on vibrancy color – a rainbow tea if you will! Red hibiscus petals, orange calendula flowers, yellow chamomile, bright green alfalfa leaf, indigo lavender, and light pink roses!!!

quartz crystals and my aquarius tea blend

Gemstones that are associated with Aquarius (Uranus) are any “glow in the dark” minerals such as uranium; as well as peridot – helping to clear any nervous energy, quartz crystal – helping to bring our ideas down to earth and to manifest them, and garnet – a protective red stone that promotes courage and confidence. Opal is a stone that fosters uniqueness and originality. You can wear any of these stones, just gaze at them nearby, make an elixir with them, place them on top of your brewing tea pot or tinctures in the moonlight, or even bathe or sleep with them nearby. Tonight is full of Aquarian energy, but you can take the energy with you anytime this way.

Let your creativity and your passions flow. Speak your mind. Share your heart. Make music. Throw a dance party by yourself under the stars. Paint a self-portrait. Cut up old clothes and make new ones. Make a collage. Write a manifesto. Experiment with new foods. Bake a crazy cake. Join a political organization that speaks to you. Let go of your fears. Do something unexpected. Send a message to outer space. Trust your intuition. Quote yourself. Do that one thing you have been putting off for way too long. Wear that one outfit you think is too crazy. Read that book that’s been sitting on the shelf. Dare to embark upon uncharted territories of the heart, mind, body, soul, home, yard, neighborhood, world! Make plans to do something you really want to do, and do it! Stand up for what you believe in and don’t be afraid to shine. The world needs you to be you. Think about the pure magic and rarity of the chances that you exist and are an irreplaceable part of this crazy, unpredictable, beautiful, and ever-changing universe.

“When I reach the gates of heaven, the heavenly judges will not ask me, ‘why weren’t you Moses?’ They will ask me, ‘why weren’t you Zusha?” – Rabbi Zusha of Anipol.
With many blessings for a night (and month, and year, and life…) full of originality and new energy,
xoxo
Gem

Cosmic Ritual: Full Moon in Gemini + Lunar Eclipse Tonight

my gemini full moon ritual with sage smudge, a gemini herbal amulet, my journal, and a gemini herbal tincture

As the moon passes through the constellation of Gemini with the sun in Sagittarius, and a partial lunar eclipse, a unique cosmic doorway is opened to us for healing, reflecting, and bringing big cosmic energy into our lives, be it with herbal medicine, gem/stone healing, meditation, or any other pathway you choose. On Wednesday November 28 at 9:46AM Eastern Time there will be a full moon and lunar eclipse. this full moon is called the beaver or frost moon.

Being a Gemini myself, perhaps my affinity with this full moon is strongest of the year. Each full moon is full of powerful energy that effects us on a deep, emotional, and powerful level, as the moon rules emotions, moods, and security. The full moon illuminates certain patterns and tendencies and helps us improve and reevaluate our current ways of living. I think of the full moons as times of intense reflection and also gratitude-giving. Rather than a time for beginning new projects like the New Moon, the full moon is more of a time of fruition and culmination. Some say it is an ideal time for ritual, magic, and imbuing creations with the big energy that is present during the full moon. But you don’t have to be a green witch to do a full moon ritual…

Speech, Communication, Connection.
In the gemini full moon, we are given a chance to reflect and work on communication and social interactions. Ruled by mercury, gemini is strongly associated with the power of speech. The infamous magical incantation “abra cadabra” actually originates in Biblical Hebrew, from the words “abareh,” meaning “I create” and “k’dibre” meaning “as I speak.” Whenever we speak, we are creating realities that have real effects on the world. This full moon is a good time to refine speech and communication and use it for positive creation. Writing in a journal and/or sharing feelings, dreams, and other inner emotions can be healing and help release negative energies during this time. Journaling is a powerful healing tool that can help bring subconscious needs, desires, or feelings to the surface. What makes this moon more special is the lunar eclipse, a time of great connection and oneness with the Earth, with our natures, and with other people. It seems a very good time to actively and wholeheartedly improve and appreciate connections and relationships, with earth, nature, ourselves, and others mainly through speech and communication.

image via our disenchanted souls

Rituals for relaxation and nervous system healing
In medical astrology, Gemini rules the nervous system, arms and hands, and the lungs. Deep breathing and aromatherapy, such as lavender oil are helpful to relax and center. The process of breathing itself is a metaphor for healing, taking in what’s good and letting go of what is unnecessary or harmful. Other ways to clear negative energy are with Sage smudging, ringing bells, and drinking warm herbal teas with lavender, skullcap, vervain, or any relaxing herbs you enjoy. Herbs that are associated with the sign of gemini include: mullein, peppermint, vervain, skullcap, lavender, oats, and parsley. You can make an herbal amulet or talisman with these or other herbs that carry the energy of gemini or its ruling planet, mercury. Another way to work with herbal energetics is by burning herbs for the purposes of cleansing or releasing energies.

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” Anaïs Nin
Gemini is an air sign that is known for change, adaptability, and adventurousness. Now’s the time to tap into this energy and make space for the new. Ridding your mind/heart/life of judgement, negative thoughts, harmful patterns, hurtful people, worries, doubts, anger, grudges, and fears/insecurities is the first step and we are blessed with a wide open door for those changes tonight. It might seem overwhelming or even scary, but that apprehension is a sign of change and growth. After that, a sense of clarity is sure to come. You can then welcome new, positive people, thoughts, and ways of living in with joy and excitement, in true gemini fashion.

For more herbal astrology and full moon teachings, check out my upcoming newsletter The Starry Eyed Herbalist. The First Issue will be printed and mailed in December 2012. Visit me on Facebook. Sign up for my free newsletter. xoxo Gem

The Journey of a Pressed Flower

“Each contact with a human being is so rare, so precious, one should preserve it.”
―Anaïs Nin

image by I Must be a Mermaid

Perhaps unknowingly, you plant a small seed of hope or love or dreams in another’s heart, and in the time between reality and dreams come true, it slowly takes root, and is cultivated by the heart and silent soul. It weathers the storms of harsh reality and rainy days, it sprouts while no one is watching.

The tiny seed gives birth someday to a beautiful rose, a sweet briar, that all who pass by her adore and admire. The rose is picked by an innocent child who wishes to give it as a gift to her friend. As it turns out, the rose passes on to a starry-eyed older brother, who in turn presents it to his one true love on a dewey May morning, between words of love and admiration. She is touched by the thought and can sense the journey of the rose, she brings it home and admires it in her room in a vase of glass.

It begins to wilt ever so slightly, as all roses do, and in hopes of preserving its beauty, she presses the rose in between the pages of a photo album. It remains in between photos of her as a youth smiling and tanned, on the seashore and hand in hand with loved ones and friends. On the cover of the album she clumsily embroidered her name and the year, 1978.

Many years go by, and the album is opened from time to time, it’s moved in boxes alongside her yearbook and her husband’s old army barrette. Until one day, her young daughter of only five, opens the album and looks inside. She sees the photos, amazed and enchanted by her own mother’s past life, trying to take in every detail, tracing every faded color and smile, trying to fathom how she came from that young girl’s belly. She turns the pages and something crispy, dry, and delicate falls into her lap, the sweet briar, now no longer pink and dewey, but a light brown and frail as ever, still beautiful though even to her young eyes. The little girl senses she has come upon something sacred, secret, and doesn’t examine it very closely, out of respect for the mysterious object. Yet she understands it was given in love and she places it back in the album, where it remains for years and years to come.

The little girl grows up herself and dreams one night of a sweet briar growing somewhere, someone who will hand it to her, someone who knows that the life of a pressed rose is much more intricate than meets the eye.

Travel Bliss: Unexpected Meetings at a Hidden Café in Prague

image by I Must Be a Mermaid

Dear Readers,
Check out a story I wrote during my travels in Prague, featured on Top Spot Travel.com, where inspiration meets destination. Thank you Jeremy A. for posting my work!

Love,

D.S.A.

Anaïs on: growth

“We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.”
― Anaïs Nin