2012 Recap, Daughter of Waters style

Andrea circa 1976

So initially I thought my posts for the year were done, but then I began to think,  much has been learned this year.  Here are 10 important things that came to me this year in the form of people, experiences, lessons (oh, you know I love those, LOL), and just plain old blessings. I find it more than cathartic to actually see written out some of my best understandings.

10 Things that made the year 2012 for me

1. Elders have gifts for me, even if initially I resist it, I've learned to take them
2. My personal spiritual medicine is real and strong, especially when I believe in it
3. My love of self is really the source of anyone loving me
4. Gauging my point on my path is infinitely what I need in order to take another step
5. I learned that I was waiting to give myself permission to be happy, not anymore :)
6. Being obedient to the Mothers (guides) wishes will take me out of my comfort zone, but so what
7. When I am eager to manifest more in my life I must first fully embrace gratitude
8. At all times I have the ability to push reset, nothing is cemented
9. My motivation this year was on: my health, my art, my love, my money, my success
10. When I am consistently silent I hear the universe as she speaks to me, it's rarely a roar but often a whisper

I hope you too can remember the things that made this year memorable and a wonderful stepping stone on your life path!


--Andrea/DaughterofWaters

New Year's Evolutions

credit: almanac.com

Okay, so as we close this calendar year I thought it'd be appropriate to share one of my strategies that really manifested for me this year.  At the urgings of my mother I wrote out my Goals for 2012 and I can not tell you the almost instantaneous results I saw.  And this from a relegated non-writer of goals or even plans.  Something deep within knew that if my mother was open enough to give me this message that I had to at least be open enough to accept it and I did JUST THAT!

So as the moon moves from the maternal like sign of Cancer and into the pretty faced sign of Leo, I say shine that light upon what will assist us all in evolving to that other level in 2013.  The New Year will dawn during the beginning of the Waning Phase of the moon, which is a time when we can make space for what we want to manifest.  So instead of coming up with trumped up surface goals, sit, meditate, and listen to that inner you.  What do you want to change? What do you want to keep the same? Any out of your league goals you been thinking about recently, go ahead, dare to decide to make them come true.

Once you have devised what you want in 2013, then cement these goals by writing them down.  And when you write these out, go for it, make a ritual or ceremony of it.  Sit comfortably, wear something that inspires you, possibly play music that is aligned with where you want to go next year.  Online and written out goals are probably our best tool for true completion.  Whatever you choose to do be sure it is from the heart, you are not constructing anyone else's goals but your own.

For clarity, focus and direction below are just four areas I choose to categorize my own goals of the new year.  I suggest you try to be as specific as possible when planning.  A wise woman once told me that often times when we ask the universe for something we are too general and when that generality gets delivered we are often disappointed.  GO FOR IT, all the way, all you can do is be successful!

New Year's Evolutionary Goals

Personal
My personal goals are the things are me, the spirit.  All of my issues or lessons that need re-learning or positive reinforcing were written in this section.  And believe me I spared no areas, just plain old self truths. Shatter any preconceived notions of who you are in this section and allow yourself to spread those royal wings for their is a flight of unparalleled proportions on its way.


Artistic/Creative
As a person with many interests this area seeks to organize and increase that which I am doing.  It's not enough for me to have a gift, what am I doing to share it, develop it, and take it to that next level.  This area for me probably is the place where I will take the most risks, but it's worth it!


Financial/Abundance
This area is one of the biggest struggles for all of us, but it is also an area where we can see the most amazing transformations, once we have decided we are worth it and concentrated our efforts.  I know in the last year I had to realize, from my goals, that I was giving myself permission to earn quite a bit more for those earnings would allow for me to manifest in ways I would never have thought.


Health and Well Being
And yes finally, how many of us have our well being in the forefront of our minds? Probably not many, me included.  I wrote and spoke into existence a me that is constantly checking, assessing, and balancing my health and well being.  In our world where we have pushed our environments to the limits none of us can afford to take our health for granted.  My mission this year is to make my well being my #1 priority and keep it there.

I say thanks for reading through this, but more importantly I say CONGRATULATIONS to all of us for taking the time to develop these goals, write them, speak to ourselves or others and then the courage to post them where we see them daily or almost daily.  What power we all are invoking and once we see these goals materialize just think of the other magic we will conjure up for humanity and this planet.  The Age we are entering is one full of strides, make sure you know which direction you are headed NOW!


--Ashe!


Andrea/DaughterofWaters

Mercury Retrogrades 2013

credit:alisonfoxastrology.com

The posted sign to the left is how most of us feel during Mercurial Retrogrades right?  Well, with the coming year of 2013, here are the Mercury Retrograde periods for the calendar year.  My wish is that understanding when these periods onset will hopefully empower all of us to utilize the blessings that this often times tricky planet can bring us.

The planet mercury will go into a retrograde period three times because the way the planet is supposed to move and what we see moving are different actions.   When this happens, all forms of communication are off kilter.  To say the least. snail mail, email, cell phone, home phone, speaking to others, speaking to yourself, and don't even think of signing a contract or wonder why negotiations are not going well.  See the map below for a better idea of how all this takes place.  

credit: politicalastrologyblog.com

For me, a person who's ruling planet is Mercury, I can only hope that my connection to the planet links me in ways that allow me to embrace it's energy, albeit contrary sometimes.  I will mark these dates and heed it's presence in my calendar year.  Hoping that you doing the same will glean some positively beautiful experiences. 

Take a look at the dates below, check out the net for more info, a general internet search will bring up many articles and blog posts, didn't want to overload, just spark a fire of your interest.  These are the dates that the retrograde starts and stop and the sun sign it is in.

Turns Retrograde    ←	Mercury travels between ↔	→    Turns Direct
February 23, 2013 9:41 GMT   4:41 AM EST 1:41 AM PST	Pisces	March 17, 2013 20:03 GMT   4:03 PM EDT   1:03 PM PDT
June 26, 2013 13:07 GMT   9:07 AM EDT 6:07 AM PDT	Cancer	July 20, 2013 18:22 GMT   2:22 PM EDT 11:22 AM PDT
October 21, 2013 10:29 GMT   6:29 AM EDT 3:29 AM PDT --Andrea/DaughterofWaters	Scorpio	November 10, 2013 21:12 GMT   4:12 PM EST   1:12 PM PST

From the moon, to the moon, over the moon!

credit: myenergyworks.com

Dawning of Fullness

With this early morning post I am grateful for breath, for love, for family, for life.  At approximately 5:21am the moon flowed her way into being full under the sign of Cancer.  So as I looked up at the hazy, beacon like moon this morning, all I could think to say was "Hello, Mama Moon".  Acknowledgement is a good thing, but surely we do not have to leave it at that.

And what does Full mean?

Full Moon time is quite powerful, as it allows each and every one of us the opportunity to fully see the growing capabilities of our wants, dreams, desires, and goals.  Think of Full Moon time as that attainment phase, you know that time when we really get to see what it is that we have put out into the universe.  Not what we have said or professed, but rather that which we really gave energy to.

The Moon is the Mother

This last Full Moon of this calendar year happens to be in the caring, loving sign of Cancer,  a sign that can bring long term rewards, love magic or order to life.  If there are any Cancers reading this let me know if you feel any of what I've written about here.  See the sign of Cancer is ultimately ruled by the Moon, so right now we have all kinds of power awaiting.  The Moon is the Mother of the Inner Self.  When the Moon rules the sky we have a gift upon us for we can really get to the heart of who and what we are and make real, positive, and tangible change and share those energies with the universe.  Aside from the Self, Moon time is a good time to do work on family, home, self healing and that Triple Goddess energy that all of us (male or female) possess.  So, decide right now, what's it gonna be? Grab the reigns of the Full Moon and harness the extremely strong emotions that may be swarming around inside you right now.  Be bold enough to take a stab at that thing you just have not had enough courage to face.  And most importantly dare to put yourself and your progress first, even at this time of year.

Shatter that which is unneeded 

My personal Full Moon journey is about breaking illusions.  I think I often get caught up in the wondrously iridescent colors of an illusion and forget that OH, I have all the power I need to break through illusions.  My power is here and now, there is no next year, when I am more evolved or anything, it's simply knowing I am all I will ever need, as are you. So, here's to breaking all illusions!

Below is a Full Moon affirmation to think about during this auspicious time of the lunar cycle.  Feel free to devise one that best suits the work you need to complete.

Full Moon Affirmation

Gracious mothers allow me to change what I find,

I am to embrace the light of this Full Moon and illuminate,

any darkness on my path of self understanding

Full Moon Herbs/Essences

Coconut

Hibiscus

Lemon

Candle Power

At the Full Moon there is an awesome amount of power available and a way to cement that power and your works is by burning candles.  Below is information on the color White that is associated with the Moon.  Find White candles that are safe and burn them as long and as much as you like.  Fire is a tool of creation that can ignite you towards your goals this Full Moon.

White

 credit: footage.shutterstock.com

Concentrated Life Force

Expansions

Focus

--Andrea/DaughterofWaters

Aligning with lined lunar-ness

credit: space.com

The time it goes down
Tomorrow at approximately 9:32am EST we will experience a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse, the last eclipse of this year.  And not to be out done, the moon becomes Full stage at 9:46am, minutes later.  Add all this up and we have total opportunity for anything from awesome power to sheer mayhem. 

And what of this eclipse
So first, what does that mean.  Well an eclipse  means that the three celestial bodies known as the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon are all in perfect alignment, which is a pretty rare event.  To line up the three sets of concepts below can really be a line of demarcation in our lives:

Sun-Creativity/Illumination
Moon-Feminine Power/Energy

Earth-Tangibility/Physicality

It's lovingly Lunar
The use of the terms Solar or Lunar before an eclipse has some to do with how they are aligned.  In a Lunar eclipse the Earth finds it's self between the Sun and a Full Moon.  Okay, hope you are still with me, LOL.  Another major difference for a Lunar eclipse is that all the work done is on your inner life meaning it's all internal transformations that can take place. So yes, more time for "our self", but this self time is such a line in the sand time.  I know I am looking forward to it to work out some personal changes I want that just have not been sticking at other times this year.  Below are questions that may add value to any work we do near or on (doing it as close to the time is a powerful step) this Lunar Eclipse.

What root causes have been stopping me?
 

Does anything in my past or ancestral past have a hold on me?

Do I have a good relationship with Karma?

What life patterns am I looking to hit the reset button on?

*Note-It is good to allow at least 2 weeks to really see manifestation in our daily lives of anything we work on during an eclipse.  Remember we are a constant creation, there is no DONE point :)

credit: 123rf.com

Gemini breaks through after the eclipse 
Please remember that the Full Moon in Gemini does occur directly following the eclipse so take advantage of that energy as well.  You will have more time to do work because work can be done over the three day period that is the day before, day of, and day after the Full Moon.  So in case you can not mark the eclipse, mark the time when Gemini brings an opening for work on diversity, change, new ventures, scholarship, and research.  A breadth of options, but all sort of in a trajectory that is similar.

 

--Andrea/DaughterofWaters

Push, pull, and prodding from Pluto

Often times I am quite amazed at how things turn out, you see I sometimes have my own ideas and then the universe takes over and what is to be occurs.  This blog post is testament to just that fact.  Already into this Scorpio Lunar Cycle I am being pushed to design new paradigms, something that at times can be quite difficult.  Out of the New Moon time the moon is Waxing which means this is perfect the time to build towards short term goals or objectives.  This Scorpion time can be flowered with thoughts of subtlety, severance, and a desire to journey towards the true self.  Hold tight to those thoughts, they are significant, but more prevalent and overriding is the Pluto energy that rules the sign of Scorpio.

Yes, it is that time again to think of rebirth and times of complete alteration.  Now do any of us really want to dwell on these concepts? Maybe not, but I tell you what when these come into play in our lives and we do nothing, only chaos and turmoil follow.  Bad decisions, hurt feelings, lost energy, and all around ickiness will abound.  Basically, at this point we are either moving closer or farther away from our actualized selves and only we each know which way the weather vane is blowing.  Our days and nights may be cooler, but it is my wish that all of us are warming to the idea of moving towards who we really are.  Guess what, either we do or we don't, it's simply up to us.  Now for each of us these changes will be different, some may be large and others may happen in that still, quiet, inner place, regardless it all represents our conscious effort to evolve.

For me this Scorpio Cycle has been about achieving, measuring, and maintaining the balance I need in my life.  So my short term goal is to continue with that.  What I am trying to do is pay closer attention to the signs earlier in the game and intercepting possible snags or setbacks.  I am sure there is more to come but with conscious effort I can surely transform and rebirth the way I understand and balance's relevance to my personal evolution.  As lofty as these all sound trust and believe I get it right sometimes and wrong other times, but one thing is for sure, I am quickly becoming my biggest cheerleader and my compassion for self is ever expanding my humanity.  Okay this was so much more than I thought I would share, but you know how it is once you get started.

As stated above, we are Waxing so focus can be on short termed goals and objectives that will help you as we move closer to that Full Moon time that is coming in a few days.  Below are general areas that can gleen results when worked upon when the moon floats through the sign of Scorpio, which is Pluto ruled.

Work in Pluto

Complete Alteration

Regeneration or Degeneration

Transformation

Transmutation

Scorpio Lunar Cycle Totem-Frog

Concept-Cleansing

Importance of Water and Sound

Abundance and Fertility

Duality in Life

Herbs and Essences for Scorpio Lunar Cycle

Elder-Emotional Healing

Dragon's Blood-Power

Sandalwood-Protection

Scorpio Lunar Cycle Affirmation

As I undergo purposeful changes

I ask for honesty, understanding, and patience

knowing on the other side of this I will be forever better and

evolved 

--Andrea/DaughterofWaters 

    

Just when you thought you were homefree...

 It's spun around again
A retrograding planet Mercury has appeared, for the last time this calendar year.  When Mercury retrogrades, all forms of communication are off kilter, to say the least. Snail mail, email, cell fone, home fone, speaking to others, speaking to yourself, and don't even think of signing a contract or wonder why negotiations are not going well. We can not put life off during the retrogrades, but forewarning will help ya navigate through it.

GPS for Mercury in Retrograde, maybe
Here with us since November 6th (or up to a week before) and expected to stay til after Thanksgiving holiday here is some food for thought and a possible strategy to get the most out of this cosmically induced situation comedy in our lives.  So, this strategy, is it full proof--uhh no.  Will there be a trial and error period where you may want to bring all things to a halt, of course.  But will this strategy at least be a jumping off point for you to understand how energy is being warped and how to anticipate and almost plan for the unexpected, hopefully YES!

Part One: Self Completion
Often we place other things and people before all of our self related matters.  So if you are a parent, a caregiver, a teacher or a caring spouse, during this retrograde, devote time to you and only you.  A hard task, but since everyone else may misread your intentions and communications why not.  Complete that draft of a book, take yourself out to dinner or the movies, or hey, even start that scarp-book project on your college days you have been putting off.  Basically, work on anything that will help complete something that is only focused on you.

Part Two: Build Stronger Existing Bonds
Now, I am sure we all have said if we just had more hours in the day we would take some time out to spend with one of our siblings, or an elder family member, or a friend we haven't seen in upteen years.  Well when Mercury retrogrades, we all can benefit by spending time strengthening those relationships that need repair, need tending, need mending, or just plain ole attention.  Don't get so caught up in the how, identify those folks first and just simply ask for the right way to make those bonds that are meaningful in our lives even stronger.

Part Three:  Harvest Gratitude
This is one of my favorite techniques when dealing with Mercury when it retrogrades.  So since there are all kinds of things that can and will go awry, I sometimes sit in the mist of all the mayhem and say thank you.  Thank you for the sun, the moon, the stars, loved ones, breath, and life.  Somehow my gratitude injects some clemency from Mercury or some other place and my focus leaves what has messed up and begins to shift to all the blessings and gifts I have and will receive.  It's really all about perception and where we lay our energy. So as harvest dawns, say THANK YOU no matter what.

Part, Whole or Activation
Now I don't think that these three things will solve all of our Mercury related troubles, but I do hope one of them or even a mere part of one will trigger within all of us the overcoming power we humans definitely possess with every cell we have, it's just about the activation phase.  Hopefully this post will help us make great things happen.

As a heads up here are the dates for the coming calendar year 2013

February 23, 2013 9:41 GMT   4:41 AM EST 1:41 AM PST	5°38' ↔ 19°52' Pisces	March 17, 2013 20:03 GMT   4:03 PM EDT   1:03 PM PDT
June 26, 2013 13:07 GMT   9:07 AM EDT 6:07 AM PDT	13°22' ↔ 23°7' Cancer	July 20, 2013 18:22 GMT   2:22 PM EDT 11:22 AM PDT
October 21, 2013 10:29 GMT   6:29 AM EDT 3:29 AM PDT	2°30' ↔ 18°24' Scorpio	November 10, 2013 21:12 GMT   4:12 PM EST   1:12 PM PST

--Andrea/DaughterofWaters