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Pluto

Big Transition Happening

Guess who's back? Back again. Pluto's back. Tell a friend.

Maybe you know, or maybe you felt Pluto returning to Aquarius last week after 225 years, and whoa Nelly are big changes coming.  Here is some guidance written by Elizabeth Gulino at Refinery29. 

The last time Pluto was in Aquarius was from 1778 to 1798 — with the planet taking 248 years to make its way through the zodiac — making this transit a once-in-a-lifetime (or once in many lifetimes) kind of occurrence.

A lot has — understandably — happened since Pluto's last traverse through the sign of the water bearer. "The invention of the first successful vaccine for smallpox, the discovery of the planet Uranus, and we also had the American Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, the French Revolution, and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution," all occurred the last time this transit happened, to according astrologer Stephanie Campos.

Aquarius rules technology, innovation, the internet, and the collective, so we'll be seeing some shifts within those specific areas. "This 20-year cycle will correlate with major scientific, medical, and technological discoveries, as well as space exploration and learning more about life beyond Earth, and the breakdown of outdated systems and structures of power that ultimately are unjust and don’t serve the collective," Campos says.

As for the planet itself, think of Pluto like a cosmic compost bin. "It destroys what no longer serves us, which isn't a pretty process, but creates space for rebirth and new beginnings," says Campos. "Pluto's influence and impact is often associated with a phoenix rising from the ashes."

Read more about what’s to come here.

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A spiritual approach to weight loss

A spiritual approach to weight loss

Spirituality expands one’s approach towards life and can change your perspective of the world. While its effects may seem vast and life-changing, embracing spirituality is something you can cultivate through small practices. After all, rather than having specific spiritual practices, it is more about acknowledging the existence of the good and bad in everything and being able to show genuine gratitude nonetheless. You can apply this mindset to any endeavor you undertake–including weight loss.

Often, though, weight loss is measured through the changes that are seen in your body. But a spiritual approach can foster a deeper connection to your body for a more sustainable and healthy weight loss.

Express gratitude for your body

Are you losing weight because you hate seeing fat on your body? While, scientifically speaking, too much fat can be detrimental for your health, know that your body’s fat-storing abilities are essential to keep your body energized. So before anything else, reorient your weight loss perspective with something more loving: gratitude. Rather than criticizing your body for being too fat for modern societal standards, lose weight to keep your fat percentage at a healthy level because you are thankful for the energy it brings.

Accept weight loss won’t be easy



Setbacks are normal in weight loss. By preparing for and knowing how to respond to these setbacks, you can enhance your motivation for weight loss. To do so, you must first ensure that your weight loss goals are realistic. Take on tasks your body can handle and work your way up over time. As we wrote in our post “One Step at a Time,” you should also recognize setbacks as part of the journey. Don't be too hard on yourself. Learn to love your body–complete with all its capacities and limitations–and acknowledge that it did its best despite the setbacks it's encountered. This way, you won't easily lose motivation even if you run into challenges. It will be easier for you to get back on track and regain your momentum toward your spiritual and weight loss goals.

Satiate your spiritual hunger



When losing weight, there are certain foods you have to avoid or limit your consumption of. This includes things like the simple sugars in white bread or fried foods rich in trans fat. Some of these can be your favorite foods, so abstaining from them creates feelings of deprivation that can result in binge eating. To gain more control over your cravings and hunger, you can instead opt to seek spiritual satisfaction through short meditative and spiritual practices like yoga. These exercises are found to help you gain wisdom, compassion, and peace that help you feel more at ease around food and losing weight.

Integrate prayer

Praying can remind you that someone is looking after you in the process of losing weight or that you are strong enough to follow through with your diet plans. These prayers can be as simple as a repeated affirmation. For example, you can say: “I’ve gone a long way, and I’ve tried. I have failed to keep my word to abstain from ___, but I chose to stop and keep taking care of the body given to me.” You can easily customize this affirmation according to what works best for you.


Weight loss can be frustrating when your progress isn’t visible. By taking a spiritual approach to weight loss, you can focus more on being thankful and attentive to your body’s overall health. From here, the physical changes you seek are more likely to follow.

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The wisdom of our emotions

The wisdom of our emotions

Growing up, I was a pretty reserved girl. I didn’t wear my emotions on my sleeve to say the least. 

I thought I was just a calm person and that nothing was wrong with that. I used to freeze when experiencing strong emotions, I didn’t know how to share them with others and didn’t trust anyone to hold space for me. I held up a cool, calm and collected demeanor, no matter what was going on in my life, no matter how intense and painful. This worked for a while, I got by, until my mother died at the age of 61 from breast cancer. The grief was too big to repress and I could feel myself get angry. I would have urges of road rage, I would lash out at my boyfriend, my brother, my friends. I felt completely alone, and I was. I couldn’t connect with anyone because I couldn’t connect with myself. It was torturous so I decided going to india and taking a spiritual path would offer me some relief. 

My father passed away unexpectedly a year and a half after my mother and that gave me the final push I needed. I was going to take a year and travel. 

My boyfriend quit his job and we set off. We went to India, we went to temples, stayed in ashrams, met gurus and swamis. It was a wonderful experience and adventure but inside I felt pretty much the same. Like John Kabat Zinn said “wherever you go, there you are.” 

There I was. Images of my mother and father in their final days flashing through my head at night, regrets, guilt, fear, hopes. 

This wasn’t working, I wasn’t free. I didn’t feel authentic, I didn’t really trust anyone, or myself. 

In the hero’s journey, there is one clear moment where the hero can’t take it anymore, it’s do or die. But in real life, it’s usually a succession of moments, a realization that it’s no longer possible to live in the same way. 

I can’t say there was one big aha moment that changed everything. It was each step of the journey that brought me to where I am today. In 2016 I met Natalie Christensen and started learning about emotions and the brain. It was literally mind blowing stuff. After each call, it was as if the veil had been pulled off my eyes and I could see the world completely differently. This lasted for a few days, and then I slipped back into my strongly wired patterns. Slowly, over time, it started to stick. My brain was making new neural pathways. Emotions were not registering as a survival threat. This has been the most incredible achievement of my life (other than giving birth to my daughters). I have changed myself from the inside out. I finally had been given the user’s manual for life. It no longer mattered what was or wasn’t happening on the outside because I was there for myself and with myself on the inside. This was the true superhero moment. I'm now honored to offer this tool to others in my 1-1 practice



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Meeting Mother Teresa and my journey to find the divine feminine

Meeting Mother Teresa and my journey to find the divine feminine

This picture has been with me for as long as I remember and for as long as I remember, I have been yearning for the divine.  It hung in my room as a child, and I carried it with me to all of the places I have lived as an adult. But only recently have I realized its miraculous nature. I feel blessed to have had a moment with a Saint and a woman who devoted her life to serving the poorest of the poor, who stood courageously for what she knew was right. She is an inspiration for me.

When I was in 6th grade, my mother came to speak at my school about her experience volunteering with the Missionaries of Charity in Hong Kong. She told our class the story of a woman who was so poor that she lived in a closet and had barely any possessions. When my mother visited her, she gifted my mother an apple. This touched my mother deeply as she realized the true meaning and sacrifice of giving. Not giving what is comfortable, what you don’t need, but giving your only sustenance to a wealthy foreigner who could have bought dozens of apples. It did not make any rational sense for the mind but it did for the heart for the heart only knows love.
Another anecdote my mother recounted was that she was nervous about me handing out sandwiches to lepers and men with tuberculosis on the streets outside the convent. The sisters reassured her, promising that I would be protected. 


I have vivid memories of standing in my elementary school playground praying the rosary. I would silently repeat the prayers in my mind as I moved the beads through my fingers, my rosary in my pocket. Nobody knew I was praying the rosary, I don’t think my parents knew either. I also remember reading about the lives of Saint Bernadette and Saint Therese of Lisieux when I was about 9 years old and holding them as my ideals. I wanted to live a life like that, I wanted to dedicate my life to God, I considered the possibility of becoming a nun. Every night, before falling asleep I would pray the Our Father and Hail Mary. I had a beautiful card above my bed of the statue of our Lady of the Miraculous Medal from Rue du Bac.
After 5th grade, my parents moved me from Public School to a Catholic school. My mystical christianity soon became tainted by the sermons about sin and guilt and the mandatory weekly confessions. I still was fascinated by the magic of prayer and how I felt when I reflected on the stories of the Marian Apparitions and the lives of the saints but I grew disillusioned with the rules and the rote repetition of the prayers, of sitting down/ standing up at exactly the same times. Something huge was missing. Where was the powerful mystical experience, where was the devotion and love? 

As part of our school, each year, we took a pilgrimage to a different holy place in France. We went to Lourdes and Rome and Lisieux and stayed in monasteries. I vividly remember walking down the halls of a monastery somewhere in a beautiful part of France and sensing in my whole body that I had lived in a monastery before. It felt like home. I loved the little room we stayed in and I imagined my life as a nun, the steadiness, the rhythm and the prayerful existence I could feel all around me. We would wake up at 4am and walk across the grass to the chapel to attend mass. This was the first time in my life I had intentionally woken up early and prayed in the early morning, the “amrit vela” as it’s known in the east, the time of nectar. I felt entranced by the sensation of being in a room lit with candlelight, and surrounded by the voices of humans praying and singing together. I was deeply moved. 

My family would go to the Episcopal Church in Paris for Easter and Christmas. My father grew up Catholic and my mother protestand. I was baptized by a woman in a prostestant church in Hong Kong. I received my 1st communion and Confirmation in the Catholic Church in Paris. 

My confirmation was another powerful moment, I remember feeling out of my body when Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, dressed in red robes, approached me. He had a kind powerful and loving presence and as he anointed me I felt that same way I felt in the bath at Lourdes. This ecstasy and bliss, like I was stepping out of time. One of our classmates had an angelic voice and sang the Ave Maria. As I listened to her sing, my heart collapsed into softness and tears welled up in my eyes. It was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard. 

I remember our trip to Rome, visiting the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel and numerous magnificent churches but what moved me the most was my time in Lourdes. In 2000, there was a big Jublile during which 80,000 catholic youth did a pilgrimage to Lourdes. It was amazing to walk on the streets of Lourdes surrounded by thousands of people singing and praying together and holding the flags of their respective countries and schools, all united by our faith. As I was familiar with the story of Bernadette Soubirous, I was very eager to experience the site of the apparition. We were taken to a changing room and given something that looked like a white sheet to me, we were to wrap it around ourselves and step into another room. I don’t remember knowing what this was about or maybe I wasn’t paying attention and chatting with my friends, we followed along. 

All of a sudden, I found myself in a room that looked like a cave, natural grey stone walls, it felt ancient, like we could have stepped into biblical times. There were a few steps up and a woman on either side of the steps. They indicated that I was to hold on to each of their arms as they led me up these steps. The steps then flattened at the top of what looked like a big bathtub carved into the stone. They kept guiding me forward, there were steps that descended into the water. I don’t remember them speaking, there was a powerful, mystical silence. The water was cold but it didn’t bother me, I stepped down, deeper and deeper until they guided me to fully immerse myself. When I emerged out of the water, I felt changed. It was cold but it wasn’t just that, I felt alive, elated, it is a sensation that has never left me. I looked up, I felt like I was in an altered state. I stepped down the steps and back to earth. I didn’t want to speak to anyone so I discreetly got dressed and eclipsed myself. I felt like my prayer for a mystical experience had been granted. I experienced something I had never experienced before, it felt like being reborn, like a quantum shift. 

I don’t remember much else about that trip other than sitting in a circle with a group of maybe 8 fellow students and a “guide”. I remember asking questions, but none of the answers resonated with me, the depth of my experience didn’t match the intellectual explanations about sin and heaven and hell. I wanted to feel, not be told. The priests and nuns in our school did not seem to lead joyful and inspired lives, they seemed weighed down by “shoulds” and heaviness. Where was the bliss and love?
The trip to Lourdes would be my departure from formal Christianity. 

I left Paris and came to the US to attend college. All of this seemed far away. There were fascinating classes, fun friends, parties, exploration of potential careers. I felt I left all those experiences behind in France and would continue my search by taking a better and different path. So like many, I looked East. After graduating, I found yoga, I was hooked. It felt so good to be in the body, it felt like praying with my body. And I loved the mystery of the sanskrit chants and the activism. I stopped eating meat, I read and learned as much as I could. I then trained to be a Kundalini Yoga teacher, I dove in deep, there were countless yoga kriyas and meditations I could learn and teach. I would help others find the light within. I felt “high” many times during classes, the intense breathwork and the repetitive movements helped ease the existential angst I felt. I wanted this to be it. I wanted to have found the “right” practice. For 13 years, I taught and learned about yoga, meditation, mindfulness, energy healing, shamanic wisdom, journeying. It “worked” yet I was still searching. It never settled in deeply, I didn’t have that moment of being fully at home. So I thought, I have to learn to love and accept myself, the answers are all within. God is within and all the wisdom is within. Yet I craved guidance, someone I could trust. I instinctively could not follow or fully trust the “Guru” of Kundalini Yoga and it turns out, for good reason. A few months ago, hundreds of allegations came out against him. That myth crumbled and even though I always had held back from considering him my teacher, it is difficult to process, there is grieving and anger and it will take time. I knew it was no longer my path, but I didn’t know where to turn. I asked for guidance and waited.

A few weeks ago, I was taking a zoom class about family constellations and the teacher was wearing a black sweater with the roaring face of a panther on it and a necklace with a small gold medal. I immediately recognized this medal, the miraculous medal from Rue du Bac in Paris. I had this same medal, and my parents had them too and I remember being deeply moved by my visit to the church. I went to search for it in my jewelry boxes. I found it, I was deeply moved to be holding it and put it on a chain that hangs right at my solar plexus. I have been wearing it every day since. I gaze down at it, and hold it in my hands. I feel Our Lady’s strength and support carrying me through the day. I ordered books about Mother Mary’s apparitions, about the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, about the Goddess and then one day I found The Way of the Rose. My heart reacted right away upon seeing the cover. I bought the audiobook and listened, fascinated. My heart felt full, like I was coming home after all these years. Sometimes I had to pause the audiobook because the strength of the resonance was so strong I had to take a few breaths. It felt like coming home after a long journey. Back to where I started but with a completely new perspective.

Perditta and Clark had filled in the blanks, everything I had felt was missing, the love for our Mother Earth and our Divine Mother. It’s not one or the other. We can’t live for a heaven that will come when our bodies go back to the earth. The way to experience the divine is right here, right now, in our beautiful glorious bodies. 

-Nina Mongendre

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Sacred Desire

Sacred Desire

What if all desires were sacred? What if we could not desire the wrong thing in the wrong way? What if we honored our heart’s longing as holy? 

I grew up believing that it is weak and materialistic to want things, to have desires. We must be satisfied with what we have, we must be content. 

Yet when I look at nature, when I look around at the world as I perceive it, everything has desires. The tree desires water and sun and for the seasons to continue, the animals desire food and shelter and we humans desire to belong, desire to love and be loved, desire to be safe, to learn, to experience happiness and purpose. How can there be anything wrong with this longing if it is part of us and we are part of the divine?

What if we honor the longing as sacred? What if each one of our desires has a place? What if the universe/Goddess/God desires us to have that exact desire at that exact moment? By us pushing it away we are saying no to life. 

What if desire is the reason we chose to be born this lifetime, because we had a desire to grow, to serve in some way, to experience ourselves as creatures filled with longings, with dreams? 

Our culture has capitalized on these desires. Knowing we are constantly filled with them, offering goods and services to temporarily quench that thirst. But it never satisfies it and maybe that is also ok. What is our ultimate desire? Is it the same for all of us or is it unique to each soul’s journey? 

I invite you to take this into your dance, into your meditation practice, into a walk in nature. What do I desire? What is my sacred dream for myself? For the world? What is being shown to me when I drop into my place of knowing. How can I turn my dream into a plan, what can I do or feel or say each day that brings me closer to that feeling and experience? 

Remember dear one, the goddess has many faces and you are one of them. 

--Nina Mongendre

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Feeling is Healing

Feeling is Healing

The biggest obstacle to our growth and healing are inner child wounds. In our adult lives, we shut down when the little one inside is afraid of being rejected again, afraid to ask for help, fearing nobody will be there.

I invite you to notice each day how your inner child is feeling, ask them what they need. If something is upsetting you in your adult life, it can be helpful to look for a parallel imprint in childhood. When do you remember feeling this way as a child? 
Is being seen safe for little you?
What does this remind you of? Sit with that memory, with that experience, allow yourself to travel back through time and see the scene, what are the colors, the scents, the textures, the sounds...involve all of your senses.

Little You needs your presence, wants you to notice and be with him or her, to hold space for connection.

The inner child deeply wants to be resonated with, to be felt and not just seen.
If you aren’t able to pause your life in that moment, you can be going about your day and still keep a part of you engaged and connected with your inner child.

By inviting your inner child back into your daily life, you reparent yourself and feel more vital, joyful and whole each day.

You no longer walk alone, you feel complete, walking hand in hand with your little one.
You come to experience deep in your being that nothing you do can make you lose love because love is who you are. 

Nina

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Before We Create the World, The World Creates Our Minds

Before We Create the World, The World Creates Our Minds

As Gabor Mate brilliantly describes, we create the world with our minds, but before we do this, the world creates our minds. Safety is not the absence of danger, it is the experience of being held and connected with another. 

Only after acknowledging that the world (our parents, society, school etc) created our minds during our formative years can we begin to untangle the threads and create the world ourselves. Imagine a jumble of cables, cell phone chargers, tv cables and others. In order to make use of them and know which is which you need to put them in order and disentangle them first. Until we know where a belief about ourselves comes from, we have a blind spot. Now imagine that all of these tangled cables are plugged into outlets. If you randomly unplug them, you might power off your computer and lose the work you were doing, you might unplug your harddrive or your router. You need a strategy, patience and some deep breathing to follow one cable at a time and locate its function and purpose. Then you can unplug it. 

In the same way, we need guidance and patience to unplug the deeply wired beliefs and behaviors that were instilled in us since our birth by the all powerful parental figures in our lives. 

Parents are Godlike beings to their children. These giants, whether they are loving or angry, present or distant gave you life, fed you and their attitude towards you created your first impression of yourself. You came into the world with these questions: Am I wanted? Am I safe? Do I matter?

How you were treated as an infant left a deep impression on your mind, body and soul. 

99% of people on deathrow were unwanted children. As a child you have two needs: attachment and authenticity. In order to survive, most of us sacrifice being authentic, being connected to our gut feelings, to our intuition and sense of what is right for us. We learn to ignore that voice because we need to stay connected at any cost to our care giver, even if they are abusive. A child will do anything to belong, and most often, that involves giving up our sense of self. What saves us as an infant and young child becomes what disconnects us from ourselves and others. It’s maladaptive because this process was unconscious. 

Creating a more joyful and empowered experience starts with locating the source of your current set up, of these wired survival mechanisms which served a purpose for a time, but are now holding us captive. 

Nina offers 1-1 sessions to help you identify and free yourself of these patterns. 

Art by Edie, browse her beautiful art here

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Mental Wellness

Mental Wellness

Mental wellness starts with emotional wellness. If we sidestep our feelings and how we experience them in our body, it becomes challenging--if not impossible--to experience clarity of thought, joy, and connection, with ourselves and others. 

Emotional attunement is essential to a full experience of life. Most of us did not grow up with a safe adult who offered us unconditional emotional support. If you are like me and most of humanity, your brain got wired for bottom up processing. What does this mean? Your brain flags strong emotions as a threat and dives into survival mode.

Survival mode is fantastic at keeping us alive, it regulates our body temperature, our heartbeat, breathing and many bodily functions. It also allows us to run away from danger, to fight to protect ourselves, to freeze and play dead or to appease in order to survive. Unfortunately, these survival strategies are not appropriate for dealing with sadness, shame, guilt or anxiety for example. It’s not personal, there’s nothing wrong with you, it’s just the way our brains were wired in childhood because of the lack of a reliable support person. 


Scenario 1

Let’s say you receive a text message from your mother/partner/friend and it reawakens a familiar sense of sadness about your relationship with her. You don’t feel seen for who you are, you get the sense you have to give to her instead of receiving from her. 

You might start online shopping or checking your social media account (flight), you might send an aggressive message back (fight) or take the anger out on your children or partner, you might try to appease her, “yes, mom, I’ll take care of it for you, no problem” even if you don’t feel like it at all, and lastly you might freeze/dissassociate by numbing out sensations, “leaving” your body, eating ice cream. 

None of these responses will be helpful for you to warrant the needed emotional release and the processing that needs to happen. 


Here is another scenario, one available to you once you learn this technique called Notice/Name/Touch. I learned this technique from The Center for Emotional Education, pioneers in teaching humans how to become emotionally sovereign.

Scenario 2

You get the message from your mother, you are aware it is triggering and feel yourself reacting to it. You first attend to any physical need for warmth, comfort or safety. Do you need to put on a warm sweater, make a cup of tea or drink some water? Are you hungry? Attending first to the needs of the body gives reassurance to your nervous system that this is not an emergency and that you are safe, no predators here.

Now sit with the sensations in your body, noticing where they are. Is your chest tight? Are your shoulders tensing up? Do you feel butterflies in your belly? 


Staying present with these, continue being curious and noticing the different parts of the body that are responding to the text message. Now, see if you can name some emotions. 

Do you feel sad, mad, anxious, frustrated? Is there any other emotion you are present to?

Allow time for this…You can name these emotions silently to yourself or speak them outloud to the room or if someone you can connect with is available you can share it with them. Keep it simple, “I am feeling sad and frustrated, would you be willing to give me a hug and be with me in this for a few minutes?” 


After giving time and space for the notice/name/touch practice, you are looking for clues that you have now shifted into your executive brain. The brain state that feels the best to be in!

Your brain shifed out of survival mode once it knew you were safe. The gates opened to allow entry to the emotional brain and by taking time to name emotions and sensations, allowing tears or sound, receiving a hug and support from a trusted ally or voicing the feeling outloud to the room, you will notice yourself shift into the executive brain. 

How can you tell you are in your prefrontal cortex? You feel optimistic, you have ideas, you feel like yourself, you feel empowered. You respond to the text in a way that feels true and non-judgmental. 

And that my friends is the brain state you want to be in when you make decisions about what to text back!

Questions, need support? 

I’m here to guide you through this process and help you rewire your brain for resilience and joy!

www.ninasamonov.com



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We are not islands

We are not islands

We are not islands. We are born into many histories that have formed and shaped our world, these histories are more than just the stories that have been told and are far more than the books that have been written to tell one person’s or one nation’s version of events.

History is a living entity for its energy and consciousness reaches across time and space to impact how we feel, what we believe and how we think today. The long reach of history informs us who is guilty, who is innocent: Who the bad people are and who the good people are; it tells us who is trustworthy and who is not, it tells us what is safe and what is not safe.

The long reach of history gives us a viewpoint of the world that has been passed down to us by our ancestors, it teaches us about god, the nature of the Universe and our place in it for we hold many beliefs concerning reality and ‘god’ that we simply assimilated without effort or question.

Ancestors are as close as your mother and father and seem as distant as your great-great-grandparents. However, your ancestors are as close as your own heart. Our DNA carries the memories and experiences of countless generations and part of our task here is to evolve from fear based living, that is founded on a false notion of who we think we are, into a more inclusive existence.

However, in order for us to do this we must first acknowledge that we are also our ancestors. When we grasp onto a transpersonal view of ourselves, we bypass one of the most fundamental lessons of human life – the lesson of compassion.

The only way for us to grow within and evolve our ancestral heritage is to fully claim our origins whilst at the same time not identifying with them as the ultimate truth of who we are. This requires balancing. Our transpersonal nature identifies with nothing, it simply merges with all that is. However, as we are in this physical body and must therefore go about our daily tasks, we relate very much through our identity as a human being. Those identities can be male, female, transgender, Asian, White, Black, Arab, Indian, Indigenous, straight, bi or gay. There are many different identities that we as humans express.

What needs to be recognized is that the earth and all of her peoples are an energy and that this energy contains information, experience and awareness; it is alive and it is conscious, above all, it is collective.

As we come into this world we are immersed in the energy field of humanity, we are immersed in the history of our family, our nation and our race and the land upon which we were born and live on.

We have indeed been plunged into humanity as if jumping into the ocean. We are wet, not only on the outside, but on the inside as well. As we swim in this ocean of consciousness we follow the eddies, currents and flows that were started not only by our ancestors but also the great forces of history and nations that shape this world for better or for worse.

When we fully own our humanity, our total belongingness to the human race, it is then and only then that we can really hope to have any influence for good. If we take the position that we are not part of the world then our contribution is one of further separation.

Indeed, what is required is for us to launch ourselves into the depths of humanity where we can fully meet all that has happened and that is happening. When we set ourselves apart or above we will never be able to experience the motives and see the truth behind human cruelty, human injustice, human greed and human frailty.

A big part of this process is the embracing of our ancestors, no matter who they are, where they are from and what they did.

So many who are spiritual seekers and healers in the world are, without full awareness, attempting to pay a penance for the acts, crimes and hurts committed by their ancestors. Some are attempting to pay a penance on behalf of their nation, their race or for someone in their family.

When we are not conscious of this we can end up bringing into the world a sense of guilt, which then sets us apart from the very people we may want to help.

Much of our personal development and education can be stimulated by the hidden motivation to fix what is bad about us. Guilt does not serve anyone and our guilt does not assist those who have suffered, for when we are attempting to fix something bad within us, then those who we are in theory helping are in fact giving us something in return through needing our help – the question remains, who needs redemption?

When we become fully aware that our own personal liberation is tied up with the liberation of those we help through teaching, sharing and healing, humility then becomes our constant companion for then we recognize the equality in both parties seeking liberation from suffering.

By Shavastri (John L. Payne) author of The Language of the Soul, Healing with words of Truth. 

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If I had to bring 10 books with me on a desert island...

If I had to bring 10 books with me on a desert island...

It didn't start with You by Mark Wolynn

Shaman, Healer, Sage by Alberto Villoldo

A Fierce Heart by Spring Washam

The Motherpeace Tarot deck and the Motherpeace book by Vicki Noble

The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer

Jose Luis Stevens, Praying with Power

Women who run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

The Way of the Rose by Clark Strand and Perdita Finn

Meditation as Medicine by Dharma Singh Khalsa

Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsh

 

 

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The Way of the Rose-Why Pray the Rosary?

The Way of the Rose-Why Pray the Rosary?

As a folk tradition, the rosary was a way of hiding the Goddess in plain sight. The rosary as a spiritual devotion predates Christianity and has its roots in moon cycles, seed gathering, and the offering of rose garlands to the Great Mother.

A Storytelling Tradition

Inspired by the beautiful book, The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary, by Clark Strand and Perdita Finn, I have found deep spiritual nourishment in the practice of the rosary. 

The rosary is a story that invites us to tell our stories. From the songs of the troubadours to the unicorn tapestries, the Lady has always encouraged self-expression. In a “rosary circles” every voice is heard and valued.

An Ancient Solution to Stress

Letting go is easier with something to hold onto. That’s why “worry beads” exist in every culture. Simpler than meditation, the rosary leads bead by bead to a place of rest, renewal, and reconnection–effortlessly available to the overscheduled and overwhelmed.

The rosary alternates two prayers…the Hail Mary and the Our Father, Maters and Paters, Mothers and Fathers, Yin and Yang, Darkness and Light, the Earth (Matter) and the Sun.

There are A LOT more Hail Marys than Our Fathers and there’s a reason for this. This is the story of The Mother…of her bringing Life into the world, watching that Life destroy itself, and then rebirthing it (and herself) back into the world.

Women hid their devotion to the Great Mother in the rosary during the Middle Ages. They couldn’t worship her as before but they hid, in this circle of beads, all of the wisdom they had collected through the ages. 

It is no coincidence that the medieval rosary emerged in those areas of France and Europe where the oldest goddess figurines (40,000 years old some of them) have been found. When we pray the rosary our voice joins with those ancestral mothers.

The Hail Mary itself is a three part prayer….to the Maiden (hail full of grace, the Lord is with thee), to the Mother (blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb), and the Crone (Holy Mother of God, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.)

The Hail Mary

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee

Blessed art thou amongst women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us,

now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

The Our Father 

Our Father, Who art in heaven,

hallowed be Thy name;

Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread;

and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us;

and lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil. Amen.

The Glory Be 

The Glory Be is an Honoring of the Eternal Return of Life. It is usually said at the end of every grouping of Hail Marys. 

Glory be to the Father, and to the Child,

and to the Holy Mother, as it was in the beginning,

is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

venus

A Community Garden for Growing Miracles

In the circles of prayer people have found love, healing, new work, homes, financial solutions, friendship, and a host of everyday surprises that defied their expectations. The rosary is a powerful way to reconnect with wonder and possibility. Find a circle here.

Spiritual Guidance for an Age of Climate Change

Our Lady often appears before famines, plagues, wars, and genocide. Her presence is a reminder that whatever challenges confront us, She will hold on to us and never let us go. From epoch to epoch She guided our ancestors through ice ages, super eruptions, and upheavals of all kinds. In praying the rosary, we take her by the hand and acknowledge She is in charge…not us.

All of the above is from Thewayoftherose.org

If you aren't comfortable with the traditional versions of the rosary prayers, there are some beautiful alternatives. 

“Hail Mary, rose without thorns,
You were born to comfort me.
help me that I shall not be lost.”
(13th Century)

“I greet you, rose garden of heaven,
The chosen, the pure, the tender one.
You noble, sweet rose blossom,
Entreat God (Goddess) for me through your goodness.”
(14th Century)

"Hail Mary, mother of the earth, the seed of Life is within you. Blessed art thou among planets and blessed is the fruit of the womb. Holy Mary, Mother of us all, pray for us sentient beings, now and at the hour of our death."

Photo of Our Lady and sacred geometry by Ithelda, purchase her beautiful images here

Browse our goddess rosaries.

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June 5th 2020, the Great Attractor

June 5th 2020, the Great Attractor

We are coming back from a spiritual near-death experience. We are touching base with new ways of perceiving and new belief systems.

"The Great Attractor is a gravitational anomaly in intergalactic space and the apparent central gravitational point of the Laniakea Supercluster. The observed anomalies suggest a localized concentration of mass thousands of times more massive than the Milky Way." Wikipedia

The Full Moon eclipse on June 5th will be at 15*34 Saggitarius at 12:12 PT.
It will be 1* apart from the Great Attractor. The Earth axis now points towards the great attractor.

The next eclipse will be a solar one, on June 20th, the day of Summer Solstice.
If you look at where these degrees fall in your chart you will know where the pull is, the power will be activated for you. 

The power to control the masses and bring back old and outdated ways is being used by leaders at times like these. The progress made will seem to have been for nothing... but make no mistakes, Venus retrograde will not allow this to continue. We are realigning. Reassessing.

It is time to re-evaluate the art of evolution and our own evolution.

Venus in Gemini will show us both sides of the coin with regards to our communication: healing or poisoning words that generate hate or love, fear or faith.

Communication easily becomes a weapon to separate, isolate and discriminate, this is a crumbling castle. Do not get caught up in the ruins.

Words that heal and comfort are the way to bring in the new better days. Creating and infusing love into what we say and do, breathing in your blessings with gratitude. 

The Great Attractor, some say, is the center of the Universe, some say it is the Black Hole. It is so powerful that it bends light. It attracts and orchestrates all cosmic bodies. Earth is moving towards it at 2.2 million km per hour.

This eclipse is the kick-off for the events that will change our lives in the next 18 months.

Do not engage with anger or fear. Instead, listen to their messages. Allow their energy in motion to pass through you, Notice what you are feeling and name the feeling and then connect back to yourself. "This too shall pass".

This is the time to dive into your daily practice and choose what you stand for.

If you need to know where these powerful degrees are at work in your chart drop me a line.

Love always

Shant Joti
www.shantjoti.com

shantjoti@gmail.com

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